BT  101  .T65 

Torrey,  R.  A.  1856-1928. 
The  God  of  the  Bible 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2019  with  funding  from 
Princeton  Theological  Seminary  Library 


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https://archive.org/details/godofbiblegodofbOOtorr 


THE  GOD  OF  THE  BIBLE 


R.  A.  TORREY 


'< 

n 


THE 

GOD  OF  THE  BIBLE 

THE  GOD  OF  THE  BIBLE  AS  DISTINGUISHED 
FROM  THE  GOD  OF  “CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE,” 
THE  GOD  OF  “NEW  THOUGHT,”  THE  GOD  \ 
OF  SPIRITUALISM,  THE  GOD  OF  “THEOSO¬ 
PHY,”  THE  GOD  OF  UNITARIANISM,  THE 
GOD  OF  “THE  NEW  THEOLOGY,”  THE  GOD / 

OF  MODERN  PHILOSOPHY,  AND  THE  GOD  , 
OF  MODERNISM  IN  GENERAL. 

R.  A.  TORREY 

DEAN,  BIBLE  INSTITUTE,  LOS  ANGELES 
Author  of  the-  Bible  the  Inerrant  Word  of  GodV^ 

^^The  Imfortance  and  Value  of  Profer  Bible 
Studyf^  ^^The  Real  Christf*  hat  the 
Bible  Teaches ^^Hozv  to  Work  for 
Christf^  etc. 


NEW 


YORK 


GEORGE  H.  DORAN  COMPANY 


COPYRIGHT,  1923, 

BY  GEORGE  H.  DORAN  COMPANY 


THE  GOD  OF  THE  BIBLE.  II 


PRINTED  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES  OF  AMERICA 


To  my  greatly  honored  parishioner  and  be¬ 
loved  friend,  MILTON  STEWART,  who  has 
done  more  by  his  upright,  consistent  and  humble 
character  and  by  his  munificent  and  widely  and 
wisely  distributed  gifts  to  promote  in  many  lands 
the  knowledge  of  The  God  of  the  Bible  than  any 
other  man  of  whom  I  know,  this  book  is  affec¬ 
tionately  inscribed  by  the  author  without  Mr. 
Stewart’s  consent  or  knowledge. 

R.  A.  Torrey. 


i 


5| 


•3 

*5 

•7 


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i 


.i 


.•i 


INTRODUCTION 


For  many  years  our  Lord’s  suggestive  and  deeply 
significant  words,  '‘This  is  the  Eternal  Life,  that  they 
should  know  Thee,  the  Only  True  God,  and  Him 
Whom  Thou  didst  send,  even  Jesus  Christ”  (Jno. 
17:3),  have  occupied  much  of  the  thought  and  the 
meditation  of  the  author  of  this  book. 

How  transcendently  important  it  is  to  Know  God. 
But  how  shall  we  truly  and  accurately  and  fully  know 
Him?  There  is  but  one  way  in  which  one  may  truly 
and  accurately  and  fully  know  God,  and  that  is  by 
studying  Him  as  He  has  been  pleased  to  reveal  Him¬ 
self  to  us  in  His  one  Book,  the  Bible,  and  in  His  One 
Son,  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord.  The  greatest  philoso¬ 
phers’  speculations  about  God  unillumined  and  un¬ 
guided  by  the  Word  of  God  and  the  living  Spirit  of 
God  are  futile  and  utterly  worthless.  Man  by  merely 
intellectual  searching  cannot  find  out  God.  To  the 
mere  natural  intellect  God  is  as  Herbert  Spencer  long 
ago  declared  that  he  was  “The  Unknowable”  (I  Cor. 
2:  14).  But  God  can  be  fully  and  joyously,  yes,  rap¬ 
turously  known  even  in  the  life  that  now  is,  by  study¬ 
ing  and  pondering  the  complete  revelation  He  has 
made  of  Himself  in  the  written  Word  and  the  In¬ 
carnate  Word,  the  Bible  and  Jesus  Christ;  studying 
them  and  pondering  them  under  the  illumination  and 


INTRODUCTION 


guidance  of  the  Holy  Spirit  Whom  God  gives  “to  them 
that  obey  Him”  (Acts  5:32;  I  Cor.  2:  13-16), 

This  book  is  the  result  of  such  a  study  and  ponder¬ 
ing  of  the  Bible  and  the  living  Son  of  God  therein 
portrayed.  This  study  has  been  carried  on  through  a 
long  period  of  years,  and  the  study  has  not  been  con¬ 
tent  with  a  careful  perusal  and  comparison  of  the 
best  translations  of  the  original  Hebrew  and  Greek 
Scriptures,  but  has  gone  somewhat  deeply  into  an  ex¬ 
amination  of  the  originals  themselves,  even  giving  no 
little  time  to  a  consideration  of  questions  of  textual 
criticism,  for  which  the  writer  for  forty-seven  years 
has  had  a  great  fondness.  The  writer’s  careful  and 
minute  study  of  the  teachings  of  the  Old  and  New 
Testament  regarding  God  has  brought  him  great  joy, 
and  many  who  have  heard  the  results  of  that  study, 
as  they  have  listened  to  these  sermons  in  the  audiences 
before  his  eyes  or  have  “listened  in”  from  five  hundred 
miles  to  three  thousand  miles  over  the  radio  have  testi¬ 
fied  to  the  joy  and  spiritual  blessing  which  they  also 
have  received. 

It  will  interest  some  to  know  that  every  one  of  these 
sermons  was  delivered  in  the  writer’s  own  Church  in 
Los  Angeles  to  an  audience  of  from  three  thousand 
to  four  thousand  men,  women  and  children  whom  he 
could  see  right  before  his  eyes  as  he  spoke  and  also  to 
an  unseen  audience  of  uncounted  thousands  who  “lis¬ 
tened  in”  as  each  one  of  these  sermons  was  broad¬ 
casted  over  the  radio  from  our  own  auditorium.  On 
one  occasion  it  was  reported  in  the  New  York  Tribune 
of  Dec.  nth,  1922,  that  the  sermon  was  heard  three 

[viii] 


INTRODUCTION 


thousand  miles  away  in  Pleasanton,  New  Jersey,  and 
led  to  a  man’s  immediate  conversion. 

The  fact  that  so  many  thousands  gathered  each 
Sunday  morning  to  listen  to  these  sermons  and  that 
they  were  listened  to,  over  the  radio  not  only  in  homes 
but  also  in  cafes,  theaters  and  parks  and  on  trains,  is 
another  proof,  if  any  were  needed,  that  there  are  thou¬ 
sands  who  are  hungry  for  something  more  than  light, 
^‘popular”  sermonettes  adorned  with  choice  diction  and 
skillful  rhetoric  or  “made  interesting”  by  a  superabun¬ 
dance  of  humorous  or  pathetic  anecdotes.  The  reli¬ 
gious  world  seems  to  be  recovering  from  its  senility 
and  anecdotage. 

There  are  but  comparatively  few  books  upon  “God” 
of  even  merely  a  speculative  character.  There  are  many 
books  on  the  Son  of  God  and  on  the  Spirit  of  God  but 
few  upon  God  Himself.  That  people  desire  such  a 
book  is  proven  by  the  fact  that  when  quite  recently 
such  a  book  did  appear  it  had  a  very  large  sale  and 
abundant  commendation,  though  it  was  crude  in  many 
respects  and  the  God  of  this  book  was  not  at  all  the 
God  of  the  Bible. 

The  author  cherishes  the  hope  that  this  book  may 
not  only  be  read  once  but  reread  often  and  deeply 
pondered  with  ever  increasing  joy  and  profit.  Per^- 
haps  it  may  be  adopted  as  a  textbook  for  class  work 
in  this  and  other  lands.  It  might  also  be  profitably 
used  in  family  worship. 

R.  A.  Torrey. 


[ix] 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER 

I 

A  Personal  God 

•  • 

*  •  • 

PAGE 

15 

H 

God  Is  Spirit  . 

•  • 

•  •  • 

35 

HI 

There  Is  Only  One  God.  Are  There 
Three  Persons  in  tpie  One  God?  . 

54 

IV 

God  Is  Everywhere. 
IN  Particular?  . 

Is  He 

•  • 

Anywhere 

•  •  • 

77 

V 

God  Is  the  Eternal 

I  Am, 

He  Always 

Was,  Always  Is  and  Always  Shall 
Be,  and  He  Is  Always  the  Same  .  .  94 

VI  God  Is  Omnipotent.  God  Can  Do  All 
Things.  There  Is  Nothing  Too  Hard 
FOR  Him . iio 

VH  God  Is  Omniscient.  He  Knows  Every¬ 
thing  . 128 

VHI  God  Is  Holy . 144 

IX  God  Is  Love . 163 

X  God  Is  Righteous . 187 

XI  God  Is  Abundant  in  Lovingkindness  or 

Mercy . 208 

.  228 


XII  God  Is  Faithful  . 


THE  GOD  OF  THE  BIBLE 


f 


V- 

.f- 


THE  GOD  OF  THE  BIBLE 


CHAPTER  I 

A  PERSONAL  GOD 

Our  subject  this  morning  is  The  God  of  the  Bible: 
A  Personal  God.  I  have  three  texts.  You  will  find 
the  first  in  Jno.  17:3: 

“This  is  life  eternal,  that  they  should  know 
thee  the  only  true  God,  and  him  whom  thou 
didst  send,  even  Jesus  Christ.” 

You  will  find  the  second  in  I  Jno.  5:20,  21 : 

“And  we  know  that  the  Son  of  God  is  come, 
and  hath  given  us  an  understanding,  that  we 
know  him  that  is  true,  and  we  are  in  him  that 
is  true,  even  in  his  Son  Jesus  Christ.  This  is 
the  true  God,  and  eternal  life.  My  little  chil¬ 
dren,  guard  yourselves  from  idols.” 

You  will  find  the  third  in  Jno.  20:28: 

“Thomas  answered  and  said  unto  Him,  My 
Lord  and  my  GodT 

It  is  of  immeasurable  importance  that  men  know 
God,  that  they  know  “the  true  God.”  To  know  “the 
true  God”  is,  as  the  first  of  our  texts  declares,  “eternal 
life.”  Not  to  know  “the  true  God”  is  eternal  death 
and  darkness.  No  other  knowledge  is  of  such  im¬ 
portance  as  the  knowledge  of  God.  We  are  having 

IS 


i6 


THE  GOD  OF  THE  BIBLE 


our  children  taught  to-day  in  our  schools,  and  col¬ 
leges,  and  universities  a  little  of  pretty  much  every 
form  of  knowledge  except  the  one  all-important 
knowledge,  the  knowledge  of  God.  It  is  not  permit¬ 
ted  in  our  public  schools  in  California  that  we  teach 
the  Bible,  which  is  the  only  book  in  which  God  has 
fully  revealed  Himself,  or  that  we  teach  them  the 
divine  origin  and  infallibility  and  matchless  value  of 
the  Bible.  But  the  teachers  in  our  public  schools  are 
permitted  to  teach  our  children,  and  do  teach  them, 
a  crass  and  ill-digested  evolutionism,  that  as  a  mat¬ 
ter  of  demonstrated  fact  undermines  their  faith  in  the 
Bible,  and  they  are  also  permitted  to  teach  them  in 
Biblical  Criticism  what  are  called  “the  assured  results 
of  modern  Scholarship”  but  what  in  actual  fact  are 
nothing  of  the  kind,  but  are  rather  the  wild  and  ex¬ 
ploded  theories  of  Wellhausen  and  Grafe  and  Kuenen, 
the  very  views  of  the  Bible  that  robbed  the  civil  rulers 
and  army  officers  of  Germany,  of  their  faith  in  the 
God  of  the  Bible  and  resulted  in  the  late  war  with  all 
its  “frightfulness”  and  the  awful  havoc  that  it 
wrought  throughout  the  whole  world.  And  already 
the  exclusion  of  the  Bible  from  our  schools,  and  these 
views  of  the  Bible  taught  in  our  schools  and  the  views 
of  God  to  which  the  ill-digested  evolutionism  taught 
in  our  schools  has  led  the  child,  are  undermining  the 
morals  of  our  boys  and  girls  in  our  schools  and  work¬ 
ing  such  a  carnival  of  youthful  lust,  and  impurity,  and 
recklessness,  and  falsehood,  and  dishonesty,  and  Bol¬ 
shevism  among  the  rising  generation  as  is  appalling, 
and  the  more  appalling  the  more  one  knows  the  facts 
regarding  some  of  our  schools. 


A  PERSONAL  GOD 


17 

Very  little  of  a  definite  and  thorough  character  is 
taught  about  God  even  in  many  of  our  churches.  In¬ 
deed  in  certain  silly  circles  there  is  a  great  outcry 
against  all  doctrinal  preaching.  By  many  our  churches 
are  simply  regarded  as  convenient  places  in  which  to 
exploit  the  various  issues  of  the  day  and  to  raise 
funds  for  schools,  hospitals,  the  destitute,  and  all 
manner  of  other  objects,  good,  bad,  and  indifferent. 
No!  This  is  the  important  thing  for  us  all  to  know 
and  for  our  preachers  to  preach,  the  full  truth  about 
God,  as  He  has  revealed  Himself  in  the  Bible  and  in 
His  Son  Jesus  Christ. 

This  address  is  the  first  of  a  series  of  addresses  on 
“The  God  of  the  Bible.’^  The  God  of  the  Bible  is  not 
the  God  of  much  of  our  so-called  “Modern  Thinking,*^ 
which  is  not  modern  at  all  but  a  revamping  of  the  old 
and  discarded  pantheism  of  centuries  gone  by.  The 
“God  of  the  Bible”  is  not  the  god  of  “Christian 
Science”  or  of  “New  Thought”  or  of  “Theosophy” 
or  of  “Spiritualism”  or  of  “Unitarianism”  or  of  “The 
New  Theology”  or  of  “Modern  Philosophy”  or  of 
“Modernism”  in  general,  or  of  any  of  the  many  and 
ever-multiplying  unbiblical  cults  of  the  day  in  which 
we  live.  So  the  full  title  of  the  series  of  sermons  is. 
The  God  of  the  Bible  as  distinguished  from  the  God 
of  “Theosophy,”  the  God  of  “Christian  Science,”  the 
God  of  “New  Thought,”  the  God  of  “Spiritualism,” 
the  God  of  “Unitarianism,”  the  God  of  “The  New 
Theology,”  the  God  of  “Modern  Philosophy,”  and 
the  God  of  “Modernism”  in  general,  and  of  the  many 
ever-multiplying  unbiblical  cults  of  the  day. 

The  particular  subject  of  our  first  sermon,  the 


i8 


THE  GOD  OF  THE  BIBLE 


sermon  of  this  morning,  is  The  God  of  the  Bible:  A 
Personal  God.  We  shall  see  as  we  proceed  that  the 
god  of  Christian  Science  and  some  of  these  other  cults 
and  the  god  that  is  taught  in  some  of  our  supposedly 
orthodox  theological  seminaries,  is  not  a  personal 
God. 

/.  What  Does  the  Word  “Personal”  Mean  When  Ap¬ 
plied  to  God? 

In  the  first  place  then  let  us  find  what  the  word 
“Personal”  means  when  applied  to  God,  or  when  ac¬ 
curately  used  in  other  connections.  What  is  a  per¬ 
son?  The  marks  of  personality  are  knowledge,  feel¬ 
ing  and  will.  Any  being  who  knows  and  feels  and 
wills  is  a  person,  whether  he  is  visible  or  invisible, 
whether  he  has  a  body  or  has  not  a  body.  Many 
people  think  when  you  say  “God  is  a  Person”  that  you 
mean  God  has  hands  and  feet  and  eyes  and  ears  and 
so  on.  But  having  hands  and  feet  and  eyes  and  ears 
and  so  on,  or  in  general  having  a  body,  is  not  the 
mark  of  Personality  but  of  Corporeity,  which  is  an 
entirely  different  matter.  Whether  or  not  God  has  a 
body  or  a  visible  form  we  will  consider  at  some  later 
day,  but  that  has  nothing  to  do  with  God’s  being  or 
not  being  a  Person. 

If  the  Lord  tarries  and  you  and  I  pass  through  the 
experience  of  what  men  call  death  before  He  comes, 
we  will  pass  out  of  this  present  dwelling  place,  i.  e.,  this 
present  body,  and  “depart  to  be  with  Christ,”  and  we 
shall  not  get  our  resurrection  bodies  until  He  comes 
again;  but  we  shall  not  cease  to  be  persons,  we  shall 


A  PERSONAL  GOD 


19 


‘^depart  to  be  with  Christ,”  and  we  shall  think  and  feel, 
and  we  shall  know  great  joy,  for  ‘‘it  is  very  far  bet¬ 
ter”  (Phil.  1:23)  to  leave  the  body  and  be  with  Him. 
We  shall,  as  Paul  puts  it  in  another  place,  be  "'absent 
from  the  body,  and  at  home  with  the  Lord”  (II  Cor. 
5:8).  It  is  clear  then  that  personality  is  one  thing, 
and  that  having  a  body  is  an  entirely  different  thing. 

It  is  one  of  the  most  common  errors  of  our  day 
to  confuse  Personality  with  Corporeity.  I  am  in¬ 
clined  to  think  that  when  Mrs.  Mary  Baker  Eddy 
denied  so  emphatically  as  she  did  the  Personality  of 
God,  she  was  thinking  of  Corporeity.  In  fact  in  the 
immediately  preceding  paragraph  of  “Science  and 
Health,”  she  says:  “Christian  Science  strongly  desig¬ 
nates  the  thought  that  God  is  not  corporeal  but  in- 
corporeal, — ^that  is  bodiless.  Mortals  are  corporeal 
but  God  is  incorporeal”  (italics  Mrs.  Eddy’s).  It 
would  not  be  a  thing  to  be  wondered  at  or  surprised 
at  if  Mrs.  Eddy  had  been  thus  confused  in  her 
thought;  for  in  her  writings,  especially  her  earlier 
writings,  before  some  person  or  persons  who  had  a 
more  accurate  knowledge  of  the  meaning  of  English 
words  than  she  possessed  corrected  them,  she  displayed 
an  amazing  ignorance,  not  only  of  the  facts  of  science 
and  religion  but  also  of  the  meaning  of  words, 
except  as  she  had  caught  some  glimpses  of  things  from 
her  study  of  Dr.  Quimby’s  writings,  which  she  so  un- 
blushingly  borrowed  and  failed  to  return,  and  of  which 
she  ultimately  refused  to  acknowledge  the  ownership. 
It  is  true  that  she  writes  in  this  connection,  “As  the 
words  Person  and  Personal  are  commonly  and  ig¬ 
norantly  employed,  they  often  lead,  when  applied  to 


20 


THE  GOD  OF  THE  BIBLE 


Deity,  to  confused  and  erroneous  conceptions  of  di¬ 
vinity,  and  its  distinction  from  humanity,’’  but  she 
goes  on  with  words  that  seem  to  indicate  confusion 
in  her  own  mind  as  to  the  distinction  between  cor¬ 
poreity  and  personality.  But  however  that  may  be, 
she  certainly  did  obscure  the  great  truth  of  ‘‘the  Per¬ 
sonality  of  God”  all  through  her  writings.  She  con¬ 
stantly  taught  that  God  was  a  mere  abstraction.  She 
taught  not  only  that  God  is  love  (which  is  true,  if  we 
properly  understand  the  meaning  of  the  words,  which 
she  did  not),  but  she  also  taught  that  “Love  is  God,” 
which  is  not  true.  Her  teachings,  carried  out  to  their 
logical  conclusion,  lead  to  the  radically  false  and  ut¬ 
terly  damnable  and  hopelessly  damning  thought  that 
“God  is  us  (all  of  us)”  and  “we  are  God”  (not  gods 
but  God).  Mrs.  Eddy  says  in  this  very  connection, 
speaking  of  the  Personality  of  God,  “If  the  term  per¬ 
sonality,  as  applied  to  God,  means  infinite  personality, 
then  God  is  personal  Being — in  this  sense  but  not  in 
the  lower  sense)  “Science  and  Health,”  69th  Edition, 
p.  10).  You  will  notice  that  she  says,  “God  is  per¬ 
sonal  Being/'  that  is,  of  course,  only  an  abstract 
Being  in  general.  She  does  not  say,  “God  is  a  Per¬ 
sonal  Being,”  that  is,  a  definite  Person,  separate  and 
distinct  from  other  persons,  all  of  whom  He  has 
created.  In  the  next  sentence  she  says  “An  Infinite 
mind  and  a  finite  form  do  not,  cannot  coalesce.” 
Here  is  another  illustration  of  her  dense  ignorance  of 
the  meaning  of  words.  No  one,  even  though  he  be¬ 
lieves  most  strongly  that  God  has  a  form,  thinks  that 
He  and  His  form  ''coalesce,”  he  thinks  they  co-exist. 
It  is  unfortunate  that  Mrs.  Eddy  did  not  have  a  good 


A  PERSONAL  GOD 


21 


dictionary  and  study  it  more  assiduously.  The  correct 
definition  of  “coalesce, ’’  given  in  one  of  the  most  re¬ 
cently  published  dictionaries,  and  one  of  the  most  re¬ 
liable,  The  Desk  Standard  Dictionary,  is,  “to  grow  or 
come  together  into  one;  fuse,  blend.”  Now,  no  one 
who  believes  that  God  has  an  outward  form  in  which 
He  manifests  Himself,  thinks  that  He  Himself,  an  in¬ 
telligent,  thinking,  willing,  determining  Personality, 
“grows  together  into  one”  with  the  form  He  inhabits, 
or  “fuses”  with  it,  or  “blends”  with  it. 

But  Mrs.  Eddy  is  not  the  only  prominent  teacher 
who  denies  the  Personality  of  God.  Professors  of 
theology  in  our  universities  and  seminaries  do  it  also. 
The  late  Professor  Walter  Rauschenbush  of  the  Bap¬ 
tist  Theological  Seminary  at  Rochester,  N.  Y.,  the 
chief  apostle  of  what  is  now  so  much  exploited  as 
“The  Social  Gospel,”  says  in  his  book,  “A  Theology 
for  the  Social  Gospel,”  page  178,  “The  old  conception 
that  God  .  .  .  u  distinct  from  our  human  life''  must 
give  way  to  “the  religious  belief  that  He  is  immanent 
in  humanity.”  Professor  Gerald  Birney  Smith,  Pro¬ 
fessor  of  Christian  Theology  at  Chicago  University 
writes,  “The  worship  of  God  in  a  democracy  will  con¬ 
sist  in  reverence  for  those  human  values  which  democ¬ 
racy  makes  supreme"  (“Man  and  the  New  Democ¬ 
racy,”  page  94).  The  natural,  indeed  the  inevitable 
inference  is,  if  Professor  G.  Birney  Smith  has  any 
accurate  knowledge  of  the  meaning  of  words,  that 
God  is  “those  human  values  which  democracy  makes 
supreme.”  In  another  place  he  speaks  of  God  as, 
“the  spiritual  forces  of  the  world  in  which  we  live” 
(“A  Guide  to  the  Study  of  the  Christian  Religion,” 


22  THE  GOD  OF  THE  BIBLE 

page  537).  In  the  light  of  this  definition  he  might  bet¬ 
ter  have  called  his  book  a  guide  to  the  study  of  Bud¬ 
dhism  or  Theosophy.  Again  in  the  same  book  on  page 
51 1  he  speaks  of  God  as  “the  unseen  forces  of  the 
universe.”  R.  G.  Campbell,  who  was  at  one  time  the 
most  outstanding  exponent  of  “The  New  Theology”  in 
England  but  afterwards  in  a  measure  at  least  recanted, 
said,  ''God  is  my  deeper  self  and  yours  too ;  he  is  the 
self  of  the  universe”  President  G.  Stanley  Hall  of 
Clark  University  sets  forth  the  opinion  that  “God  is 
the  truth,  virtue,  beauty  of  man.”  President  Hall  goes 
on  to  say  that  the  only  real  atheist  is  he  “who  denies 
these  attributes  to  man”  (“Jesus  the  Christ,  in  the 
Light  of  Psychology,”  Vol.  I,  p.  285).  Professor 
Hall  also  says  that  prayer  is  “communion  with  the 
deeper  racial  self  within  us.”  The  late  Professor 
Royce  of  Harvard  University  spoke  of  God  as  the 
immanent  “spirit  of  the  community”  {The  Amercian 
Journal  of  Theology,  1913,  p.  638).  It  would  be  easy 
to  multiply  quotations  from  Professors  of  Theology  in 
Theological  Seminaries  and  Universities  that  present 
similar  pantheistic  definitions  of  an  impersonal  God, 
but  let  us  turn  from  all  this  skillfully  phrased  foolish¬ 
ness  to  the  lofty  revelation  of  God  as  He  really  is  set 
forth  in  God’s  own  Word,  the  Bible. 

IL  The  Personality  of  God  as  Set  Forth  in  the  Bible 

From  the  first  chapter  of  Genesis  to  the  last  chapter 
of  Revelation  we  see  God  as  a  Person,  an  infinite  and 
perfect  Person,  not  a  mere  force,  or  abstract  intelli¬ 
gence,  or  “the  absolute,”  but  an  infinitely  wise,  infin- 


A  PERSONAL  GOD 


23 


itely  holy,  and  infinitely  loving  Person,  ‘‘Our  Father  in 
Heaven,”  as  our  Lord  Jesus  spoke  of  Him  and  to 
Him  (Matt.  6 :  9). 

I  will  not  stop  here  to  show  that  knowledge,  feeling 
and  will  are  all  ascribed  to  God  in  the  Bible  over  and 
over  again.  All  of  us  who  know  our  Bible  at  all  well 
know  that  the  knowledge  and  love  and  supreme  will 
of  God  appear  on  nearly  every  page,  and  we  will  take 
all  these  things  up  in  detail  in  some  future  studies  when 
we  consider  the  Omniscience  of  God,  the  Holiness  of 
God,  the  Love  of  God  and  the  Sovereignty  of  God. 

I.  In  the  first  place,  The  Bible  reveals  God  as  a  liv¬ 
ing  God.  Read  Jer.  10:  10-16  (R.  V.). 

“But  Jehovah  is  the  true  God;  He  is  the 
living  God,  and  an  everlasting  King:  at  His 
wrath  the  earth  trembleth,  and  the  nations  are 
not  able  to  abide  His  indignation.  Thus  shall 
ye  say  unto  them,  The  Gods  that  have  not 
made  the  heavens  and  the  earth,  these  shall 
perish  from  the  earth,  and  from  under  the 
heavens.  He  hath  made  the  earth  by  His 
power.  He  hath  established  the  world  by  His 
wisdom,  and  by  His  understanding  hath  he 
stretched  out  the  heavens.  When  He  uttereth 
His  voice,  there  is  a  tumult  of  waters  in  the 
heavens,  and  He  causeth  the  vapors  to  ascend 
from  the  ends  of  the  earth;  he  maketh  light¬ 
nings  for  the  rain,  and  bringeth  forth  the  wind 
out  of  His  treasuries.  Every  man  is  become 
brutish  and  is  without  knowledge;  every  gold¬ 
smith  is  put  to  shame  by  his  graven  image ;  for 
his  molten  image  is  falsehood,  and  there  is  no 


24 


THE  GOD  OF  THE  BIBLE 


breath  in  them.  They  are  vanity,  a  work  of 
delusion:  in  the  time  of  their  visitation  they 
shall  perish.  The  portion  of  Jacob  is  not  like 
these;  for  he  is  the  former  of  all  things;  and 
Israel  is  the  tribe  of  his  inheritance:  Jehovah 
of  hosts  is  His  name.” 

In  this  sublimely  eloquent  passage,  so  strikingly  in 
contrast  to  the  vapid  word  spinning  of  the  supposedly 
scholarly  and  brilliant  seminary  and  university  pro¬ 
fessors  whom  we  have  been  quoting,  God  is  distin¬ 
guished  from  the  idols,  the  gods  men  make  for  them¬ 
selves  which  are  things,  not  persons,  things  which 
‘‘speak  not,”  “cannot  go,”  “cannot  do  evil,”  “neither 
is  it  in  them  to  do  good”  (see  Jer.  10:  5,  8,  9).  In 
contrast  with  them  Jehovah  is  wiser  than  “all  the  wise 
men,”  He  is  “the  living  God,”  “an  everlasting  King,” 
a  Being  who  has  “wrath  and  indignation,”  and  who 
is  separate  and  apart  from  all  the  persons  and  things 
which  He  Himself  has  created.  “At  His  wrath  the 
earth  trembleth,  and  the  nations  are  not  able  to  abide 
His  indignation.”  The  idols  men  form  to-day  and 
call  “God”  are  not  made  with  their  hands,  as  in  Jere¬ 
miah’s  day,  from  “the  stock”  of  “the  palm  tree”  and 
“decked  with  silver  and  gold” :  they  are  made  with 
their  bewildered  and  addled  brains  out  of  the  tenuous 
filaments  of  their  own  auto-intoxicated  musings  (as  we 
have  seen  in  the  fatuous  quotations  given  above),  but 
they  are  idols  just  the  same,  and  they  are  not  “the  only 
true  God,”  the  God  of  the  Bible. 

In  this  quotation  from  the  prophet  Jeremiah,  who 
lived  and  wrote  six  hundred  years  before  Christ,  we 
are  in  the  realm  of  the  sublime.  In  these  quotations 


A  PERSONAL  GOD  25 

from  these  great  and  brilliant  “Modern  Scholars,” 
who  lived  nineteen  hundred  years  after  Christ,  we  are 
in  the  realm  of  the  ridiculous.  How  came  this  man 
who  lived  twenty-five  hundred  years  ago  to  utter  such 
marvelous  wisdom  in  such  striking  contrast  to  the 
inane  nonsense  of  these  bright  and  learned  and 
“scholarly”  thinkers  of  to-day?  There  can  be  but  one 
rational  answer  to  that  question;  and  that  answer  is, 
The  infinitely  wise  God  spoke  through  him;  while  these 
modern  theologians,  discounting  the  Word  of  God 
and  chasing  the  butterflies  of  “modern  scholarship” 
and  “modern  [pantheistic]  philosophy”  and  self-con¬ 
fident  metaphysics,  “professing  themselves  to  be  wise, 
became  fools”  (Rom.  1:22).  We  all  do  well  when  we 
imitate  the  early  converts  in  Thessalonica  and  “turn 
to  God  from  (all  these  disgusting)  idols  to  serve  the 
living  and  true  God,”  and  also  to  wait  for  His  Son 
from  Heaven”  (I  Thess.  i :  19). 

2.  In  the  second  place,  God  is  revealed  in  the  Bible 
as  having  a  present  interest  in  and  an  active  hand  in 
the  affairs  of  men.  We  read  in  Josh.  3:10: 

“And  Joshua  said,  Hereby  ye  shall  know 
that  the  living  God  is  among  you,  and  that  He 
will  without  fail  drive  out  from  before  you  the 
Canaanite,  and  the  Hittite,  and  the  Hivite,  and 
the  Perizzite,  and  the  Girgashite,  and  the 
Amorite,  and  the  Jebusite.” 

We  read  in  Dan.  6:  20-22,  26,  27: 

“And  when  he  came  near  unto  the  den  to 
Daniel,  he  cried  with  a  lamentable  voice;  the 
king  spake  and  said  to  Daniel,  O  Daniel,  ser¬ 
vant  of  the  living  God,  is  thy  God,  whom  thou 


26 


THE  GOD  OF  THE  BIBLE 


servest  continually,  able  to  deliver  thee  from 
the  lions?  Then  said  Daniel  unto  the  King, 
O  King,  live  forever.  My  God  hath  sent  His 
angel,  and  hath  shut  the  lions’  mouths,  and 
they  have  not  hurt  me;  forasmuch  as  before 
Him  innocency  was  found  in  me;  and  also  be¬ 
fore  thee,  O  King,  have  I  done  no  hurt.  .  .  . 
I  make  a  decree,  that  in  all  the  dominion  of 
my  kingdom  men  tremble  and  fear  before  the 
God  of  Daniel;  for  He  is  the  living  God,  and 
steadfast  forever,  and  His  kingdom  that  which 
shall  not  be  destroyed;  and  His  dominion  shall 
be  even  unto  the  end.  He  delivereth  and  rescu- 
ethj  and  He  worketh  signs  and  wonders  in 
heaven  and  in  earth.  Who  hath  delivered  Daniel 
from  the  power  of  the  lions.” 

And  we  read  in  Heb.  lo:  28-31 : 

‘‘For  we  know  Him  that  said.  Vengeance  be- 
longeth  unto  me,  I  will  recompense.  And 
again.  The  Lord  shall  judge  His  people.  It 
is  a  fearful  thing  to  fall  into  the  hands  of  the 
living  God.” 

And  we  read  in  Rom.  8:28-31,  R.V. : 

“And  we  know  that  to  them  that  love  God 
all  things  work  together  for  good,  even  to  them 
that  are  called  according  to  His  purpose.  For 
whom  He  foreknew.  He  also  foreordained  to  be 
conformed  to  the  image  of  His  Son,  that  He 
might  be  the  first  born  among  many  brethren : 
and  whom  He  foreordained,  them  He  also 
called,  them  He  also  justified :  and  whom  He 
justified,  them  He  also  glorified.  What  then 


A  PERSONAL  GOD 


27 

shall  we  say  to  these  things?  If  God  is  for  us, 
who  is  against  us?” 

And  in  Phil.  4:  19  we  read: 

“And  my  God  shall  supply  every  need  of 
yours  according  to  His  riches  in  glory  in  Christ 
Jesus.” 

We  see  then  that  “the  God  of  the  Bible”  is  not  only 
to  be  distinguished  from  the  god  of  Pantheism  who 
has  no  existence  whatever  separate  from  his  creation, 
but  also  from  the  God  of  the  Deist,  Who  has  created  a 
world  and  put  into  it  all  the  necessary  powers  of  self- 
action  and  development  and,  having  set  it  going,  leaves 
it  to  go  of  itself.  The  God  of  the  Bible  is  a  God  who 
has  a  personal,  active,  and  present  interest  in  the  af¬ 
fairs  of  the  universe  to-day. 

One  of  the  most  distinctive  and  outstanding  features 
of  the  so-called  “New  Theology”  and  of  “the  Higher 
Criticism”  is  that  it  scoffs  at  the  miraculous,  the  super¬ 
natural,  at  the  idea  of  God  taking  at  the  present  time, 
or  in  Bible  times,  any  active  and  immediate  hand  in  the 
affairs  of  man.  Many  of  us  know  by  glad  and  glorious 
experience  that  the  Bible  conception  is  the  true  concep¬ 
tion  and  that  the  conception  of  “Modern  Scholarship” 
runs  up  against  the  stone  wall  of  the  established  facts 
of  history  and  the  facts  of  our  own  personal  experi¬ 
ence. 

3.  In  the  third  place,  God  is  revealed  in  the  Bible 
as  the  Creator  of  all  existing  things,  animate  and  in¬ 
animate,  earthly  and  celestial.  The  very  first  words 
we  read  in  the  Bible,  opening  the  sublime  epic  of  crea¬ 
tion  found  in  the  first  chapter  of  Genesis,  are,  “In  the 
beginning  God  created  the  heavens  and  the  earth,”  and 


28 


THE  GOD  OF  THE  BIBLE 


in  the  N.  T.  counterpart  to  this  passage  we  read  in 
Jno.  1:1-3: 

“In  the  beginning  was  the  Word,  and  the 
Word  was  with  God,  and  the  Word  was  God. 
The  same  was  in  the  beginning  with  God. 
All  things  were  made  through  him;  and  with¬ 
out  him  was  not  anything  made  that  hath  been 
made.’' 

In  Col.  1 :  16  we  read: 

“For  in  him  [that  is  in  Jesus  Christ]  were 
all  things  created,  in  the  heavens  and  upon  the 
earth,  things  visible  and  things  invisible, 
whether  thrones  or  dominions  or  principalities 
or  powers ;  all  things  have  been  created  through 
him,  and  unto  him.” 

This  all  is  in  marked  contrast  to  the  god  who  is  left 
to  us  by  the  crass  and  scientifically  and  historically 
disproven  evolutionism  that  so  strangely  dominates  our 
universities,  theological  seminaries,  high  schools,  and 
private  schools.  When  you  ask  them  for  some  sub¬ 
stantial  proof  of  their  theory,  they  reply,  “All  scholars 
are  agreed  upon  it,”  but  when  you  ask  them  what 
about  this  scholar  or  that  they  reply,  “Oh,  he  doesn’t 
believe  in  Evolution,  therefore  he  is  not  a  scholar.”  It 
reminds  me  of  a  talk  I  had  some  years  ago  with  a 
student  in  Edinburgh  University.  He  had  remarked 
to  me  that  all  the  great  Semitic  scholars  belonged  to 
the  destructive  school  of  Biblical  Criticism.  I  asked 
him  what  about  Professor  Margoliouth  (at  that  time 
perhaps  the  greatest  Semitic  scholar  in  England).  “Is 
he  a  scholar?”  this  young  man  asked  me.  I  replied, 
“He  was  so  considered  until  he  left  the  radical  side 


A  PERSONAL  GOD 


29 

and  came  over  to  the  conservative  side.’^  The  student 
smiled  and  admitted  that  it  was  so. 

4.  In  the  fourth  place,  The  Bible  reveals  God  as 
sustaining,  governing,  and  caring  for  the  world  He 
has  created,  and  as  shaping  the  whole  present  history 
of  the  world.  We  read  in  Ps.  104:  27-30: 

“These  wait  all  for  thee, 

That  thou  mayest  give  them  their  food  in 
due  season. 

Thou  givest  unto  them,  they  gather; 

Thou  openest  thy  hand,  they  are  satisfied 
with  good. 

Thou  hidest  thy  face,  they  are  troubled; 

Thou  takest  away  their  breath,  they  die. 

And  return  to  their  dust. 

Thou  sendest  forth  thy  Spirit,  they  are 
created; 

And  thou  renewest  the  face  of  the  ground.’’ 
We  read  again  in  Isa.  45  :  5-7  : 

“I  am  Jehovah,  and  there  is  none  else;  beside 
me  there  is  no  God.  I  will  gird  thee,  though 
thou  hast  not  known  me;  that  they  may  know 
from  the  rising  of  the  sun,  and  from  the  west, 
that  there  is  none  beside  me:  I  am  Jehovah, 
and  there  is  none  else.  I  form  the  light,  and 
create  darkness;  I  make  peace,  and  create  evil; 
I  am  Jehovah,  that  doeth  all  these  things.’* 
Where  in  all  the  literature  of  the  “modernists,”  or 
any  other  literature  except  the  Bible,  can  we  find  any¬ 
thing  that  approaches  the  sublimity  of  both  of  these 
passages?  (Let  me  say  in  passing  in  regard  to  the 
passage  in  Isaiah  where  Jehovah  says,  “I  create  evil,” 


THE  GOD  OF  THE  BIBLE 


30 

the  word  here  translated  “evil”  does  not  mean  moral 
evil  but  natural  evil,  and  by  the  context  we  see  in  this 
'T  particular  case  it  means  “unrest  and  trouble”  as  con- 
y  trasted  with  “peace”).  We  read  again  in  Ps.  76: 
6,  7: 

“At  thy  rebuke,  O  God  of  Jacob, 

Both  chariot  and  horse  are  cast  into  a  dead 
sleep. 

Thou,  even  thou,  art  to  be  feared; 

And  who  may  stand  in  thy  sight  when  once 
thou  art  angry?” 

5.  In  the  fifth  place,  God  is  revealed  in  the  Bible 
as  One  Whose  care  and  government  extend  to  all  His 
creatures,  even  the  smallest  and  the  most  insignificant. 
We  read  in  Matt.  6:26,  28-30: 

“Behold  the  birds  of  the  heaven,  that  they 
sow  not,  neither  do  they  reap,  nor  gather  into 
barns;  and  your  heavenly  Father  feedeth  them. 
Are  not  ye  of  much  more  value  than  they  ?  .  .  . 
And  why  are  ye  anxious  concerning  raiment? 
Consider  the  lilies  of  the  field,  how  they  grow; 
they  toil  not,  neither  do  they  spin:  yet  I  say 
unto  you,  that  even  Solomon  in  all  his  glory 
was  not  arrayed  like  one  of  these.  But  if  God 
doth  so  clothe  the  grass  of  the  field,  which  to¬ 
day  is,  and  to-morrow  is  cast  into  the  oven, 
shall  He  not  much  more  clothe  you,  O  ye  of 
little  faith?” 

And  we  read  in  Matt.  10:29,  30: 

“Are  not  two  sparrows  sold  for  a  penny? 
and  not  one  of  them  shall  fall  to  the  ground 


A  PERSONAL  GOD 


31 

without  your  Father :  but  the  very  hairs  of  your 
head  are  all  numbered.” 

6.  In  the  sixth  place,  God  is  revealed  in  the  Bible 
as  One  Whose  care  and  ministry  and  government  ex¬ 
tend  to  the  individual.  Way  back  in  Genesis,  the  book 
in  which  are  the  seeds  from  which  the  whole  vast  tree 
of  Bible  truth  would  grow,  we  read : 

‘‘But  Jehovah  was  with  Joseph,  and  showed 
kindness  unto  him,  and  gave  him  favor  in  the 
sight  of  the  keeper  of  the  prison”  (Gen.  39: 
21  R.  V.). 

And  in  Dan.  i :  9  we  read : 

“Now  God  made  Daniel  to  find  kindness  and 
compassion  in  the  sight  of  the  prince  of  the 
eunuchs.” 

And  in  I  Kings  19:  5-7,  we  read  of  God’s  own  ten¬ 
der  and  personal  ministries  to  His  discouraged  prophet : 

“And  he  lay  down  and  slept  under  a  juniper- 
tree;  and  behold,  an  angel  touched  him,  and 
said  unto  him.  Arise  and  eat.  And  he  looked, 
and,  behold,  there  was  at  his  head  a  cake  baken 
on  the  coals,  and  a  cruse  of  water.  And  he  did 
eat  and  drink,  and  laid  him  down  again.  And 
the  angel  of  Jehovah  came  again  the  second 
time,  and  touched  him,  and  said.  Arise  and  eat, 
because  the  journey  is  too  great  for  thee.” 

7.  In  the  seventh  place,  God  is  revealed  in  the  Bible 
as  One  Whose  control  and  government  extend  to  the 
wicked  designs  and  devices  and  doings  of  evil  men 
and  even  of  Satan  himself  and  as  One  who  makes  the 
seeming  evil  work  out  to  His  own  glory  and  His  peo- 


THE  GOD  OF  THE  BIBLE 


32 

pie's  good.  Listen  to  these  words  written  more  than 
twenty-five  hundred  years  ago,  Ps.  76:10:  ‘‘Surely 
the  zvrath  of  man  shall  praise  thee:  the  remainder  of 
wrath  shalt  thou  restrain.”  And  read  these  words 
written  in  the  first  book  in  the  Bible,  which  our  “mod¬ 
ern  scholars”  affect  so  much  to  despise,  but  to  whose 
lofty  heights  they  have  not  yet  climbed  even  the  foot¬ 
hills,  Gen.  50:20:  “And  as  for  you,  ye  meant  evil 
against  me;  but  God  meant  it  for  good,  to  bring  to 
pass,  as  it  is  this  day,  to  save  much  people  alive.” 
Read  also  these  words  in  the  second  book  in  the  Bible, 
Ex.  9:  16:  “But  in  very  deed  for  this  cause  have  t 
made  thee  (the  wicked  Pharaoh)  to  stand,  to  show 
thee  my  power,  and  that  my  name  may  be  declared 
throughout  all  the  earth.”  Turn  now  to  the  N.  T. 
and  read  Peter’s  marvelously  significant  words  on  the 
day  of  Pentecost,  Acts  2  : 22,  23  : 

“Ye  men  of  Israel,  hear  these  words:  Jesus' 
of  Nazareth,  a  man  approved  of  God  unto  you 
by  mighty  works  and  wonders  and  signs  which 
God  did  by  him  in  the  midst  of  you,  even  as 
ye  yourselves  know;  him,  being  delivered  up 
by  the  determinate  counsel  and  foreknowledge 
of  God,  ye  by  the  hand  of  lawless  men  did 
crucify  and  slay.” 

Now  turn  back  to  what  many  scholars  regard  as  the 
earliest  written  book  in  the  Bible,  Job,  Chapter  1:12 
and  2:6: 

“And  Jehovah  said  unto  Satan,  Behold,  all 
that  he  hath  is  in  thy  power;  only  upon  himself 
put  not  forth  thy  hand.  So  Satan  went  forth 
from  the  presence  of  Jehovah.”  “And  Jehovah 


A  PERSONAL  GOD 


33 

said  unto  Satan,  Behold,  he  is  in  thy  hand; 
only  spare  his  life.” 

Here  the  Bible  represents  even  Satan  himself  with 
all  his  malevolence  carrying  out  the  merciful  purposes 
of  God. 

In  Luke  22:3  we  see  the  same  thing,  “And  Satan 
entered  into  Judas  who  was  called  Iscariot,  being  of 
the  number  of  the  twelve,”  and  the  result  was  that 
God’s  eternal  purpose  of  redeeming  love  was  accom¬ 
plished  by  the  atoning  death  of  Jesus  Christ,  which 
was  brought  to  pass  by  the  great  enemy  of  God  and 
man,  the  Devil. 

Such  is  the  God  of  the  Bible,  as  far  as  the  question 
of  His  Personality  and  His  being  a  living  God  is  con¬ 
cerned,  a  God  who  lives  and  loves  and  acts  and  works 
to-day.  Oh,  I  am  glad  I  have  such  a  real,  concrete, 
personal,  living  God,  One  in  Whom  I  can  trust  and 
have  no  fears,  whatever  may  arise,  and  not  the  im¬ 
personal,  abstract,  vague,  vapory,  elusive,  unreal  God 
of  the  rhetorical  twaddle  of  Walter  Rauschenbush, 
Professor  G.  Birney  Smith,  President  G.  Stanley 
Hall,  Professor  Royce,  Mrs.  Mary  Baker  Eddy, 
and  a  host  of  other  drowsy  dreamers.  With 
such  a  God  I  can  face  whatever  calamity  seems  to 
threaten  to  overtake  me  and  say,  “I  know  that  all 
things  work  together  for  good  to  them  that  love  God, 
to  them  who  are  the  called  according  to  his  purpose” 
(Rom.  8:  28),  and  again,  “If  God  be  for  us,  who  can 
be  against  us?”  (Rom.  8:31). 

If  any  of  you  wish  the  god  of  “Christian  Science” 
or  the  god  of  “New  Thought”  or  the  god  of  “Mod¬ 
ern  Scholarship”  (falsely  so-called),  you  can  have  it. 


34 


THE  GOD  OF  THE  BIBLE 


I  would  not  give  two  cents  for  it.  But  give  me  the 
God  of  the  Bible,  the  Real  God,  “the  living  and  true 
God,”  “the  only  true  God,”  Whom  to  know  is  not  only 
“life  eternal,”  but  boundless  peace  and  overflowing 
joy  every  day. 


CHAPTER  II 


GOD  IS  SPIRIT 

The  general  subject  of  this  chapter  is  the  same  as 
that  of  Chapter  I,  “The  God  of  the  Bible,”  the  God  of 
the  Bible  as  distinguished  from  the  god  of  Theosophy, 
and  the  god  of  Christian  Science,  and  the  god  of  “New 
Thought,”  and  the  god  of  Spiritualism,  and  the  God 
of  “Unitarianism,”  and  the  God  of  “The  New  Theol¬ 
ogy,”  and  the  god  of  “Modern  Philosophy,”  and  the 
god  of  “Modernism”  in  general.  In  Chapter  I  our 
particular  subject  was,  “The  God  of  the  Bible:  A  Per¬ 
sonal  God.”  Our  particular  subject  here  is,  “The  God 
of  the  Bible:  God  is  Spirit.”  I  have  seven  texts  and 
three  of  them  are  the  same  as  in  the  former  chapter. 
My  first  text  is  Jno.  17:3: 

“And  this  is  life  eternal,  that  they  should 
know  thee  the  only  true  God,  and  him  whom 
thou  didst  send,  even  Jesus  Christ.” 

My  second  text  is  I  Jno.  5 :  20,  21 : 

“And  we  know  that  the  Son  of  God  is  come, 
and  hath  given  us  an  understanding,  that  we 
know  him  that  is  true,  and  we  are  in  him  that 
is  true,  even  in  his  Son  Jesus  Christ.  This  is 
the  true  God,  and  eternal  life.  My  little  chil¬ 
dren,  guard  yourselves  from  idols.” 

My  third  text  is  Jno.  20:28: 

35 


36 


THE  GOD  OF  THE  BIBLE 


‘‘Thomas  answered  and  said  unto  him,  My 
Lord  and  my  God” 

My  fourth  text  is  Jno.  4:24: 

“God  is  Spirit.” 

My  fifth  text  is  Phil.  2:5,  6: 

“Have  this  mind  in  you,  which  was  also  in 
Christ  Jesus :  Who,  existing  in  the  form  of 
God  .  .  .” 

My  sixth  text  is  Acts  7:  55,  56: 

“But  he,  being  full  of  the  Holy  Spirit, 
looked  up  steadfastly  into  heaven,  and  saw  the 
glory  of  God,  and  Jesus  standing  on  the  right 
hand  of  God,  and  said.  Behold,  I  see  the 
heavens  opened,  and  the  Son  of  man  standing 
on  the  right  hand  of  God.” 

My  seventh  text  is  I  Tim.  1:17: 

“Now  unto  the  King  eternal,  immortal,  in¬ 
visible,  the  only  God,  be  honor  and  glory  for 
ever  and  ever.  Amen.” 

We  saw  that  personality  and  corporeity  were  not 
the  same  thing.  We  saw  that  saying  God  was  a  Per¬ 
son  did  not  necessarily  involve  God’s  having  a  body. 
We  saw  that  any  being  who  knows,  and  feels,  and  wills 
is  a  person  whether  he  is  visible  or  invisible,  whether 
he  has  a  body  or  has  not  a  body.  The  question 
whether  or  not  God  has  a  body,  a  visible  form,  we 
shall  take  up  in  this  chapter. 

/.  God  Is  Spirit 

The  first  thing  that  our  texts  in  this  chapter  teach  us 
about  God,  the  God  of  the  Bible,  “the  only  true  God,” 


GOD  IS  SPIRIT 


37 


the  God  Whom  to  know  is  life  eternal,  and  Whom 
not  to  know  is  eternal  death  and  darkness,  is,  that 
''God  is  Spirit”  This  is  clearly  stated  in  our  fourth 
text  which  tells  us  in  words  which  our  Lord  Jesus 
Himself  spoke  to  the  woman  of  Samaria,  “God  is 
Spirit.” 

1.  You  will  notice  that  both  the  A'.  V.  and  the 
R.  V.  translate  this  verse  “God  is  a  Spirit”  and  that  I 
omitted  the  indefinite  article  “a”  and  translated  “God 
is  Spirit.”  There  is  no  indefinite  article  in  the  Greek 
text,  but  that  does  not  necessarily  imply  that  my  trans¬ 
lation  is  correct;  for  there  is  no  indefinite  article  in 
the  Greek  language,  and  whenever  it  is  needed  in  an 
English  translation  it  must  be  supplied.  But  I  think 
the  translation  “God  is  Spirit”  is  to  be  preferred  in  this 
instance  to  “God  is  a  Spirit,”  because  further  on  in 
the  same  verse  we  are  told  that  “they  that  worship 
him  must  worship  in  spirit  and  truth,”  where  we  have 
precisely  the  same  word,  only  in  the  dative  case,  with 
no  indefinite  article,  and  no  indefinite  article  is  sup¬ 
plied.  Furthermore,  the  construction  is  exactly  the 
same  as  in  I  Jno.  i :  5,  where  we  read  “God  is  Light” 
(not,  “God  is  a  Light”)  and  in  I  Jno.  4:  8  and  I  Jno. 
4:16  where  we  read  “God  is  Love”  (not,  “God  is  a 
Love”).  But,  perhaps,  it  does  not  matter  so  very  much 
whether  we  read  “God  is  Spirit”  or  “God  is  a  Spirit;” 
the  thought  is  essentially  the  same. 

2.  By  the  order  of  the  words  in  the  Greek  text  a 
very  strong  emphasis  is  put  on  the  word  "Spirit,” 
Literally  translated  in  the  order  of  the  Greek  text  our 
text  would  read,  “Spirit  is  God.”  But  according  to 
Greek  usage  that  would  not  imply  what  the  words  put 


THE  GOD  OF  THE  BIBLE 


38 

in  that  order  might  imply  in  our  English  idiom.  By 
a  common  Greek  usage,  “Spirit”  is  put  first  in  the  sen¬ 
tence  for  the  purpose  of  heavily  emphasizing  it.  The 
one  thought  that  our  Lord  Jesus  wished  to  impress 
upon  the  mind  of  the  woman  of  Samaria  at  this  time 
was  that  “God  is  Spirit”  and,  therefore,  not  confined 
to  places,  whether  it  be  Mt.  Gerizim  (as  the  Samari¬ 
tans  held)  or  to  Jerusalem  (as  most  of  the  Jews  of 
that  time  held)  (see  verses  20-24). 

3.  But  just  what  does  the  striking,  yes,  startling, 
sentence,  “God  is  Spirit”  mean?  What  is  “Spirit”? 
We  must  go  to  the  Bible  itself  for  an  answer  to  this 
question  and  fortunately  we  can  again  go  to  the  words 
of  the  Lord  Jesus  Himself;  for  in  another  place  He 
has  Himself  defined  carefully  and  exactly  what  He 
means  by  “Spirit.”  You  will  find  this  definition  in 
Luke  24 : 39,  ''See  my  hands  and  my  feet,  that  it  is  I 
myself :  handle  me,  and  see ;  for  a  spirit  hath  not  flesh 
and  hones,  as  ye  behold  me  having.”  (There  is  no 
article  before  “spirit”  here  either).  It  is  evident  from 
these  words  of  our  Lord  Jesus  that  by  “Spirit”  He 
means  a  reality  that  cannot  be  seen  or  handled  or 
physically  felt:  therefore,  "spirit”  is  incorporeal  (or, 
bodiless),  invisible  reality. 

The  same  definition  of  “spirit”  is  implied  in  John 
3 : 8,  “The  wind  bloweth  where  it  will,  and  thou  hear- 
est  the  voice  thereof,  but  knowest  not  whence  it  com- 
eth,  and  whither  it  goeth :  so  is  every  one  that  is  born 
of  the  Spirit.”  Now  the  word  translated  “wind”  in 
the  first  part  of  this  passage  is  exactly  the  same  Greek 
word  as  that  translated  “Spirit”  in  the  last  part  of  the 
verse  and  in  our  text ;  and  the  thought  is  that  “Spirit” 


GOD  IS  SPIRIT 


39 

or  ‘*wind”  is  something  of  which  you  can  hear  the 
voice,  but  which  you  cannot  see,  and  the  mystery  of 
whose  actions  you  cannot  fully  solve.  Therefore,  to 
say  ''God  is  Spirit''  is  to  say  that  God,  though  He  is 
real,  is  essentially  incorporeal  (bodiless)  and  invisible, 
4.  This  conception  of  God  as  in  His  essence  invisi¬ 
ble  and  incorporeal  is  found  in  the  Old  Testa¬ 
ment  as  well  as  in  the  New  Testament.  We 
find  it  way  back  in  Deuteronomy,  a  book  of  which 
‘hhe  Higher  Critics”  so  love  to  make  light,  but  which 
they  have  never  studied  sufficiently  to  understand  the 
profundity  and  sublimity  of  its  Divinely  inspired 
teachings.  Turn  to  Deut.  4:  15-18: 

“Take  ye  therefore  good  heed  unto  your¬ 
selves;  for  ye  saw  no  manner  of  form  on  the 
day  that  Jehovah  spake  unto  you  in  Horeb  out 
of  the  midst  of  the  fire;  lest  ye  corrupt  your¬ 
selves  and  make  you  a  graven  image  in  the 
form  of  any  figure,  the  likeness  of  male  or  fe¬ 
male,  the  likeness  of  any  beast  that  is  in  the 
earth,  the  likeness  of  any  winged  bird  that  fli- 
eth  in  the  heavens,  the  likeness  of  anything  that 
creepeth  on  the  ground,  the  likeness  of  any  fish 
that  is  in  the  water  under  the  earth.” 

The  fundamental  reason  for  the  strict  command  in 
the  Ten  Commandments  not  to  make  “a  graven  image, 
nor  any  likeness  of  anything  that  is  in  heaven  above, 
or  that  is  in  the  earth  beneath,  or  that  is  in  the  water 
under  the  earth”  and  not  to  “bow  down  to  them  nor 
worship  them”  (Deut.  5:8,  9),  is  that  God  is  essen¬ 
tially  “Spirit,”  invisible  and  incorporeal. 


40 


THE  GOD  OF  THE  BIBLE 


//.  What  the  Bible  Means  When  It  Says,  *^God  Cre-^ 
ated  Man  in  His  Own  Image” 

As  God  is  essentially  invisible  and  incorporeal  the 
question  necessarily  arises,  What  then  does  the  Bible 
mean  when  it  says  in  Gen.  i :  26,  27 : 

“And  God  said,  let  us  make  man  in  our 
image,  after  our  likeness:  and  let  them  have 
dominion  over  the  fish  of  the  sea,  and  over  the 
birds  of  the  heavens,  and  over  the  cattle,  and 
over  all  the  earth,  and  over  every  creeping  thing 
that  creepeth  upon  the  earth.  And  God  created 
man  in  His  own  image,  in  the  likeness  of  God 
created  he  him,  male  and  female  created  He 
them”  ? 

If  God  is  incorporeal  and  invisible,  to  what  does 
the  “image”  and  “likeness”  of  God  in  which  we  are 
said  to  have  been  created,  refer?  Here  again  we  can 
go  to  the  Bible  for  an  answer,  and  the  Bible  gives  a 
very  definite,  very  clear  and  unmistakable  answer  to 
that  question.  You  will  find  the  answer  in  Col.  3 : 9, 
10,  “Ye  have  put  off  the  old  man  with  his  doings,  and 
have  put  on  the  new  man,  that  is  being  renewed  unto 
knowledge  after  the  image  of  him  that  created  him.” 
You  will  find  it  also  in  Eph.  4:  24,  “Be  renewed  in  the 
spirit  of  your  mind,  and  put  on  the  new  man,  that 
after  God  hath  been  created  in  righteousness  and  holi¬ 
ness  of  truth”  And  you  will  find  a  remarkable  com¬ 
mentary  upon  it  in  Col.  1:15,  “who  is  the  image  of 
the  invisible  God,  the  firstborn  of  all  creation.”  It  is 
clear  from  all  these  passages  that  the  words  “image” 


GOD  IS  SPIRIT 


41 


and  “likeness”  do  not  refer  primarily  to  visible,  physi¬ 
cal  (or  bodily)  likeness  but  to  intellectual  and  moral 
likeness,  likeness  “in  knowledge,”  and  “in  righteous¬ 
ness  and  holiness  of  truth.” 

Here  we  have  another  illustration  of  what  we  are 
constantly  meeting  in  our  close  study  of  the  Bible,  the 
Divine  unity  of  the  Bible.  How  perfectly  what  John 
records  Jesus  as  saying  fits  into  what  is  said  in  Deu¬ 
teronomy,  and  what  is  said  in  Genesis  fits  into  what  is 
said  in  Colossians  and  Ephesians.  Whence  comes 
this  profound  and  minute  unity  of  teaching  of  the 
various  books  of  the  Bible,  the  earliest  and  the  latest? 
The  answer  is  both  simple  and  clear,  God  Himself  is 
the  real  Author  of  all  the  books ;  He  was  always  guid¬ 
ing  what  every  one  wrote,  whether  it  was  Moses  or 
John  or  Paul. 

II L  Has  God  a  Body  or  Form? 

We  see  then  that  God  is  essentially,  i.  e.,  in  His  real 
Being  and  Personality,  incorporeal  and  invisible.  He 
is  as  our  seventh  text  declares  ''invisible.”  Let  me 
read  it  to  you  again,  I  Tim.  1:17,  “Now  unto  the  King 
eternal,  immortal,  invisible,  the  only  God,  be  honor 
and  glory  for  ever  and  ever.  Amen.”  The  Greek 
word  which  is  here  translated  “invisible”  means  here 
not  only  that  which  is  unseen,  but  that  which  is  un¬ 
seeable.  God  in  His  inmost  essence,  in  His  real  Per¬ 
sonality,  is  "unseeable.” 

Does  it  follow  then  that  God  has  no  body  or  form 
at  all?  Not  by  any  means.  You  and  I  in  our 
real  selves  are  unseeable.  This  body  which  we 


THE  GOD  OF  THE  BIBLE 


42 

inhabit  and  which  men  see  is  not  our  real  self.  You 
never  saw  me,  except  as  I  reveal  myself  by  a  smile  or 
a  frown  or  by  a  peculiar  look  in  my  eyes  or  by  the 
cast  of  my  countenance,  all  of  which  I  form  by  my 
temperament  and  conduct.  This  body  which  you  see 
is  only  the  house  I  live  in,  it  is  not  I.  If  the  Lord 
tarries  and  I  pass  through  the  experience  of  what  men 
call  “death”  before  He  comes,  it  will  not  be  I  who  die 
and  crumble  into  dust,  it  will  be  only  this  house  I  live 
in,  “the  earthly  house  of  our  tabernacle”  (as  Paul 
puts  it  in  II  Cor.  5:1);!,  my  real  self,  will  depart  to 
be  with  Christ  in  conscious  blessedness  (Phil,  i :  23), 
and  when  the  Lord  Jesus  comes  again  this  body  will 
be  raised  from  the  dust  (Dan.  12:2;  I  Thess.  4:16) 
and  transformed  into  the  likeness  of  “the  body  of  His 
glory”  (Phil.  3:20,  21).  And  even  that  body  will 
not  be  my  real  self  but  my  “habitation,”  my  “habita¬ 
tion  which  is  from  heaven”  (II  Cor.  5:2). 

When  Jesus  was  crucified  and  died  His  body  was 
laid  in  Joseph’s  tomb  and  kept  from  corruption,  but 
He  Himself  bodiless  went  into  Hades.  That  is  what 
Peter  said  on  the  day  of  Pentecost.  Listen  to  his 
words,  “He  foreseeing  this  spake  of  the  resurrection  of 
the  Christ,  that  neither  was  He  left  unto  Hades,  nor 
did  His  desk  see  corruption”  (Acts  2:31).  Here  a 
clear  cut  distinction  is  drawn  between  “He,”  Jesus 
Himself,  who  went  into  Hades,  and  “His  flesh”  (or 
body)  which  went  into  Joseph’s  tomb  and  no  further. 

So  we  come  back  to  the  question.  Has  God  a  body, 
a  visible  form,  in  which  He  manifests  Himself? 

I.  In  reply  to  that  question  let  me  say,  first  of  all, 
that :  the  Bible  clearly  teaches,  that  that  which  is  Spirit 


GOD  IS  SPIRIT 


43 

manifests  itself  in  visible  form.  This  we  see  in  Jno. 
1 : 32,  where  we  read,  “I  have  beheld  the  Spirit  de¬ 
scending  as  a  dove  out  of  heaven.’^  Here  not  only  a 
spirit  but  ''The  Spirit’^  was  seen  in  visible  form.  The 
Greek  word  translated  “beheld”  is  a  very  strong  word 
for  seeing  with  the  physical  eye. 

2.  In  the  second  place,  in  Ex.  24:  9,  10,  we  are  told 
that  Jehovah,  the  God  of  Israel,  manifested  Himself 
in  visible  form  and  was  seen.  Let  me  read  it  to  you : 

“Then  went  up  Moses,  and  A'aron,  Nadab, 
and  Abihu,  and  seventy  of  the  elders  of  Israel : 
and  they  saw  the  God  of  Israel;  and  there  was 
under  His  feet  as  it  were  a  paved  work  of  sap¬ 
phire  stone,  and  as  it  were  the  very  heaven  for 
clearness.” 

What  was  seen  in  these  visible  manifestations  of 
God?  The  answer  is  plain,  that  which  was  seen  in 
these  visible  manifestations  of  God  was  not  God  Him¬ 
self,  that  is  God  in  His  invisible  essence,  but  merely  a 
visible  manifestation  of  God.  This  is  clear  from  Jno. 
1:18: 

"No  man  hath  seen  God  at  any  time;  the 
only  begotten  Son,  who  is  in  the  bosom  of  the 
Father,  he  hath  declared  him.” 

It  is  also  clear  from  the  book  of  Exodus  itself.  We 
read  in  Exodus  33  :  18-23: 

“And  he  (i.  e.,  Moses)  said.  Show  me,  I  pray 
thee,  thy  glory.  And  He  (i.  e.,  Jehovah)  said, 
I  will  make  all  my  goodness  pass  before  thee, 
and  will  proclaim  the  name  of  Jehovah  before 
thee;  and  I  will  be  gracious  to  whom  I  will  be 
gracious,  and  I  will  show  mercy  on  whom  I 


44 


THE  GOD  OF  THE  BIBLE 


will  show  mercy.  And  He  said,  Thou  canst  not 
see  my  face;  for  man  shall  not  see  me  and  live. 
And  Jehovah  said,  Behold,  there  is  a  place  by 
me,  and  thou  shalt  stand  upon  the  rock:  and 
it  shall  come  to  pass,  while  my  glory  passeth 
by,  that  I  will  put  thee  in  a  cleft  of  the  rock, 
and  will  cover  thee  with  my  hand  until  I  have 
passed  by :  and  I  will  take  away  my  hand,  and 
thou  shalt  see  my  back;  but  my  face  shall  not 
he  seen,” 

Many  people  are  greatly  staggered  by  the  apparent 
contradiction  between  Jno.  i :  i8,  “No  man  hath  seen 
God  at  any  time”  and  Ex.  24:9,  10,  “Then  went  up 
Moses,  and  Aaron,  Nadab,  and  Abihu,  and  seventy  of 
the  elders  of  Israel:  and  they  saw  the  God  of  Israel/^ 
But  when  one  stops  to  think  it  through  he  sees  that 
there  is  really  no  contradiction  at  all.  It  is  perfectly 
true  that  “no  man  hath  seen  God”  (i.  e.,  God  Himself, 
God  as  He  is  in  his  invisible  essence)  “at  any  time.” 
God  in  His  essence,  in  His  inmost  Personality,  is  “un¬ 
seeable.”  (As  for  that  matter,  no  one  has  even  seen 
R.  A.  Torrey  at  any  time.  You  have  seen  this  body 
that  I  live  in,  but  have  you  seen  me  ?  I  think  not.  Do 
you  think  that  you  know  me?  I  think  not.  One  of 
my  misfortunes  is  that  my  face  and  eyes  reveal  so  lit¬ 
tle  of  what  I  feel  in  my  heart.  Sometimes  perhaps  it 
is  my  good  fortune.)  Yet  men  have  seen  God;  that  is, 
they  have  seen  that  form  in  which  He  has  manifested 
Himself,  e.  g.,  to  the  seventy  elders  on  Mt.  Sinai. 

Two  statements  which  appear  to  flatly  contradict 
one  another  may  both  be  perfectly  true.  To  illustrate: 
A  man  may  see  the  reflection  of  the  back  of  his  head 


GOD  IS  SPIRIT 


45 

in  a  glass.  It  would  be  perfectly  true  for  that  man  to 
say,  “I  saw  the  back  of  my  head  in  the  mirror.”  But 
it  would  also  be  true  to  say,  “I  never  saw  the  back  of 
my  head.”  What  he  really  saw  was  not  the  back  of 
his  head,  it  was  but  a  reflection  of  the  back  of  his  head 
in  a  mirror.  To  be  still  more  exact,  no  one  ever  saw 
the  back  of  any  one’s  head.  What  we  really  see  when 
we  say  with  perfect  truth,  ‘T  saw  the  back  of  a  man’s 
head,”  is  the  reflection  of  the  back  of  that  man’s  head 
on  the  retina  of  our  eye.  In  the  same  way,  a  few  men 
have  seen  a  manifestation  of  God,  and  it  is  perfectly 
true  to  say  these  men  ^'saw  God/'  But  no  man  ever 
saw  God  as  He  is  in  His  invisible  essence,  the  very 
God  Himself;  so  it  is  perfectly  true  to  say  ''no  man 
hath  seen  God  at  any  time/' 

3.  In  the  third  place,  "The  Angel  of  the  LORD"  in 
the  Old  Testament,  Who  frequently  appeared  and  was 
seen  by  Abraham,  Manoah,  and  others,  was  a  Divine 
Person,  God  in  human  form.  A'  clear  distinction  is 
drawn  in  the  Bible  between  "an  angel  of  the  LORD,” 
and  "The  Angel  of  the  LORD,  (or,  Jehovah).”  The 
Authorized  Version  does  not  always  preserve  the  dis¬ 
tinction;  the  Revised  Version,  following  the  Hebrew 
text  of  the  Old  Testament  and  the  Greek  text  of  the 
New  Testament,  always  does:  and  “The  Angel  of  the 
LORD  (or,  Jehovah)”  is  a  Divine  Person.  This  is 
perfectly  clear  from  many  passages.  Read,  e.  g., 
Gen.  16 :  7-10 : 

“And  the  angel  of  Jehovah  found  her 
(Hagar)  by  a  fountain  in  the  wilderness,  by 
the  fountain  in  the  way  to  Shur.  And  he  said, 
Hagar,  Sarai’s  handmaid,  whence  earnest  thou 


46 


THE  GOD  OF  THE  BIBLE 


and  whither  goest  thou?  And  she  said  I  am 
fleeing  from  the  face  of  my  mistress  Sarai. 
And  the  angel  of  Jehovah  said  unto  her,  Re¬ 
turn  to  thy  mistress,  and  submit  thyself  under 
her  hands.  And  the  angel  of  Jehovah  said  unto 
her,  I  zvill  greatly  multiply  thy  seed,  that  it 
shall  not  he  numbered  for  multitude J' 

Here  the  “Angel  of  Jehovah  in  verse  ten  is  clearly 
identified  with  Jehovah  Himself  in  verse  thirteen, 
where  we  are  told  that  Hagar  “called  the  name  of 
Jehovah  that  spake  unto  her.  Thou  art  a  God  that 
seeth.”  Now  the  One  who  “spake  unto  her”  we  are 
told  in  the  preceding  verses  was  ''The  Angel  of  Je¬ 
hovah,”  therefore,  Jehovah  and  "The  Angel  of  Je¬ 
hovah”  are  clearly  identified  with  one  another. 

Now  read  Gen.  21 :  17,  18: 

“And  God  heard  the  voice  of  the  lad:  and 
the  angel  of  God  called  to  Hagar  out  of  heaven, 
and  said  unto  her,  What  aileth  thee,  Hagar? 
fear  not;  for  God  hath  heard  the  voice  of  the 
lad  where  he  is.  Arise,  lift  up  the  lad,  and 
hold  him  in  thy  hand;  for  I  will  make  him  a 
great  nation.” 

Here  it  is  definitely  said  that  “the  angel  of  God” 
declares  that  he  will  do  what  only  God  can  do;  and, 
therefore,  He,  “the  angel  of  God,”  is  distinctly  de¬ 
scribed  as  a  Divine  Person. 

Also  read  Judges  2 :  i,  2 : 

“And  the  angel  of  Jehovah  came  up  from 
Gilgal  to  Bochim.  And  he  said  (that  is,  the 
angel  of  Jehovah  said),  I  made  you  to  go  up 
out  of  Egypt,  and  have  brought  you  unto  the 


GOD  IS  SPIRIT 


47 


land  which  I  sware  unto  your  fathers;  and  / 
said,  I  will  never  break  my  covenant  with  you : 
and  ye  shall  make  no  covenant  with  the  inhabi¬ 
tants  of  this  land;  ye  shall  break  down  their 
altars.  But  ye  have  not  hearkened  unto  my 
voice:  why  have  ye  done  this?’^ 

Here  ''the  angel  of  Jehovah”  distinctly  says  that  it 
was  he  that  brought  them  up  out  of  Egypt,  and  that  it 
was  he  that  promised  the  land  unto  their  fathers,  and 
that  it  was  he  that  made  a  covenant  with  Israel.  Now 
it  was  certainly  Jehovah  Who  did  all  these  things,  and 
therefore  it  is  as  clear  as  day  that  The  "angel  of  Je¬ 
hovah”  is  identified  with  Jehovah  Himself. 

A  very  noteworthy  passage  in  this  connection  is 
Gen.  1 8.  Suppose  you  read  verses  i,  2,  9,  10,  13,  14, 
16: 

‘‘And  Jehovah  appeared  unto  him  by  the 
oaks  of  Mamre,  as  he  sat  in  the  tent  door  in 
the  heat  of  the  day:  and  he  lifted  up  his  eyes 
and  looked,  and,  lo,  three  men  stood  over 
against  him  (evidently  one  of  those  three  who 
appeared  as  "three  men”  was  Jehovah,  for  it 
says  in  verse  i,  that  "Jehovah  appeared  unto 
him”)  :  and  when  he  saw  them  he  ran  to  meet 
them  from  the  tent  door,  and  bowed  himself 
to  the  earth.  ...  (9,  10)  And  they  said  unto 
him.  Where  is  Sarah  thy  wife?  And  he  said. 
Behold,  in  the  tent.  And  he  (i.  e..  One  of  the 
three)  said,  /  will  certainly  return  unto  thee 
when  the  season  cometh  round;  and,  lo,  Sarah 
thy  wife  shall  have  a  son.  And  Sarah  heard  in 
the  tent  door  which  was  behind  him.  .  .  . 


48 


THE  GOD  OF  THE  BIBLE 


(v.  13)  And  Jehovah  said  (here  is  it  distinctly 
said  that  it  was  Jehovah  who  said  what  one  of 
the  three  men  said)  unto  Abraham,  Wherefore 
did  Sarah  laugh,  saying.  Shall  I  of  a  surety 
bear  a  child,  who  am  old?  Is  anything  too 
hard  for  Jehovah?  At  the  set  time  /  will  re~ 
turn  unto  thee,  when  the  season  cometh  round, 
and  Sarah  shall  have  a  son.” 

Here  again  one  of  these  three  persons  who  appeared 
in  human  form  is  identified  again  and  again  with  Je¬ 
hovah.  Now  turn  to  the  19th  chapter.  We  read  in 
the  first  verse  that  only  ''two''  of  the  three  who  talked 
to  Abraham  entered  Sodom  at  even.  Here  are  the 
words,  “And  the  two  angels  came  to  Sodom  at  even; 
and  Lot  sat  in  the  gate  of  Sodom.”  One  of  the 
“three”  then  has  remained  behind,  two  have  gone  on. 
Who  was  the  one  who  remained  behind?  It  is  per¬ 
fectly  clear  as  we  read  on  in  the  i8th  chapter  of 
Genesis,  verses  17-21 : 

“And  Jehovah  said  (it  is  evident  then  that 
Jehovah  was  the  one  of  the  three  who  remained 
behind).  Shall  I  hide  from  Abraham  that  which 
I  do;  seeing  that  Abraham  shall  surely  become 
a  great  nation  and  mighty  nation,  and  all  the 
nations  of  the  earth  shall  be  blessed  in  him? 
For  /  have  known  him,  to  the  end  that  he  may 
command  his  children  and  his  household  after 
him,  that  they  may  keep  the  way  of  Jehovah 
to  do  righteousness  and  justice ;  to  the  end  that 
Jehovah  may  bring  upon  Abraham  that  which 
HE  hath  spoken  unto  him.  And  Jehovah  said, 
Because  the  cry  of  Sodom  and  Gomorrah  is 


GOD  IS  SPIRIT 


49 

great,  and  because  their  sin  is  very  grievous; 
I  will  go  down  now,  and  see  whether  they  have 
done  altogether  according  to  the  cry  of  it, 
which  is  come  unto  me;  and  if  not,  I  will 
know.” 

Then  we  read  in  verse  22  (ch.  18)  that  “the  men 
turned  from  thence  and  went  toward  Sodom;  (that  is, 
the  “two”  men,  for  only  “two”  entered  Sodom,  as  we 
see  in  Chap.  19:1)  “but  Abraham  stood  yet  before 
Jehovah.'^  Clearly,  then,  the  one  of  the  three  who  re¬ 
mained  behind  was  Jehovah  manifested  in  the  form  of 
a  man.  In  verse  33  the  story  continues,  ^‘And  Jeho¬ 
vah  went  His  way,  as  soon  as  He  had  left  off  com¬ 
muning  with  Abraham;  and  Abraham  returned  unto 
his  place.”  And  in  the  27th  verse  of  the  19th 
chapter  we  read,  “And  Abraham  gat  up  early  in  the 
morning  to  the  place  where  he  had  stood  before 
Jehovah.''  So  there  is  no  room  left  to  question  that 
the  One  who  remained  behind  while  the  other  two 
went  on  to  Sodom,  the  One  before  whom  “Abraham 
stood,”  was  Jehovah  appearing  in  human  form. 

In  Zech.  12:8  we  find  a  very  clear  setting  forth  of 
the  fact  that  “the  angel  of  Jehovah”  is  a  Divine  Per¬ 
son.  This  is  how  it  reads,  “In  that  day  shall  Jehovah 
defend  the  inhabitants  of  Jerusalem;  and  he  that  is 
feeble  among  them  at  that  day  shall  be  as  David;  and 
the  house  of  David  shall  be  as  God,  as  the  angel  of 
Jehovah  before  them.”  Here  the  “angel  of  Jehovah” 
is  distinctly  stated  to  be  “God.” 

In  all  these  passages  ‘Jhe  angel  of  Jehovah"  is  clearly 
identified  with  Jehovah  Hwiself;  that  is,  He  is  the  visi¬ 
ble  manifestation  of  Jehovah. 


THE  GOD  OF  THE  BIBLE 


50 

Just  who  then  was  “The  Angel  of  Jehovah’’  ?  This 
becomes  perfectly  clear  by  a  comparison  of  a  passage 
in  the  Book  of  Judges  with  the  prophecy  concerning 
the  coming  Messiah  in  Isa.  9 : 6,  7. 

In  Judges  13:18  (R.  V.)  we  read: 

“And  the  Angel  of  Jehovah  said  unto  him 
(that  is,  unto  Manoah),  Wherefore  askest  thou 
after  my  name,  seeing  it  is  Wonderful.” 

The  Authorized  Version  here  reads  “seeing  it  is 
secret/'  but  this  is  beyond  question  an  incorrect  trans¬ 
lation.  Now  turn  to  Isa.  9:6,  7,  where  we  are  told 
the  name  of  the  coming  Messiah,  who  should  be  a  Di¬ 
vine  Person,  is  “Wonderful.” 

“For  unto  us  a  child  is  born,  unto  us  a  son 
is  given;  and  the  government  shall  be  upon  his 
shoulder;  and  his  name  shall  be  called  Wonder¬ 
ful,  Counsellor,  Mighty  God,  Everlasting 
Father,  Prince  of  Peace.  Of  the  increase  of 
his  government  and  of  peace  there  shall  be  no 
end,  upon  the  throne  of  David,  and  upon  his 
kingdom  to  establish  it,  and  to  uphold  it  with 
justice  and  with  righteousness  from  henceforth 
even  forever.” 

Here  we  see  that  it  is  the  Messiah  whose  name  is  to 
be  called  “Wonderful,”  but  the  passage  in  Judges 
says  that  the  name  of  “the  Angel  of  Jehovah”  is 
'‘Wonderful/'  The  Hebrew  for  the  word  “wonder¬ 
ful”  in  Judges  13 :  18  is  almost  identical  with  the  word 
used  in  Isaiah,  except  that  in  the  one  case  it  is  an  ad¬ 
jective  and  in  the  other  the  noun  from  which  that  ad¬ 
jective  is  derived.  From  all  this  it  is  clear  that  “the 
Angel  of  Jehovah”  of  the  Old  Testament  was  the  Son 


GOD  IS  SPIRIT 


SI 

of  God  before  His  permanent  incarnation  in  the  per¬ 
son  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth.  This  throws  much  light 
upon  what  we  read  in  Jno.  i :  1-3,  14: 

*Tn  the  beginning  was  the  Word,  and  the 
Word  was  with  God,  and  the  Word  was  God. 
The  same  was  in  the  beginning  with  God.  All 
things  were  made  through  him;  and  without 
him  was  not  anything  made  that  hath  been 
made.  .  .  .  And  the  Word  became  desk,  and 
dwelt  among  us  (and  we  beheld  his  glory,  glory 
as  of  the  only  begotten  from  the  Father)  full  of 
grace  and  truth.” 

It  should  be  added  that  “the  Angel  of  the  Lord” 
never  appears  after  the  birth  of  Jesus,  the  Christ. 
The  expression  does  occur  in  the  Authorized  Version 
in  five  instances  (Matt.  1:20;  Matt.  28:2;  Luke  2:9; 
Acts  8:26;  Acts  12 :  7,  23),  but  in  every  instance  it  is 
a  mistranslation,  as  is  clear  from  the  Revised  Version, 
which  in  every  case  gives  ''an  angel  of  the  Lord,”  just 
as  the  Greek  text  reads. 

Our  Lord  Jesus  Himself  refers  to  these  previous 
manifestations  of  Himself  in  human  form  in  Jno. 
8:  56,  where  He  says,  “Your  father  Abraham  rejoiced 
to  see  my  day;  and  he  saw  it,  and  was  glad.”  It  was 
in  seeing  our  Lord  Jesus  at  Mamre  in  “the  Angel  of 
Jehovah”  that  “Abraham  saw  (Jesus’)  day.” 

4.  But  this  is  not  all  that  can  be  said  about  God 
having  a  body  or  form.  In  the  fourth  place,  The  Bible 
clearly  teaches  that  God  existed,  even  before  His  in¬ 
carnation  in  the  person  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  in  a  visi¬ 
ble  form,  in  the  eternal  world.  This  we  see  from  a 
comparison  of  Jno.  i :  1-3,  14,  with  Phil.  2 :  5,  6,  where 


52 


THE  GOD  OF  THE  BIBLE 


we  read,  “Have  this  mind  in  you  which  was  also  in 
Christ  Jesus :  who,  existing  in  the  form  of  God/'  The 
word  translated  “existing’^  in  the  Revised  Version  of 
this  verse  is  a  rather  unusual  and  very  remarkable 
word.  It  means  “existing  substantially’’  or  “existing 
originally.”  The  word  translated  ''form”  means  in 
Greek  usage  from  the  time  of  Homer  down,  “the  form 
by  which  a  person  or  thing  strikes  the  vision;  the  ex¬ 
ternal  appearance”  (Thayer’s  Greek-English  Diction¬ 
ary  of  the  New  Testament).  But  the  form  in  which 
the  Divine  Person  Who  became  incarnate  in  the 
person  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth  existed  originally  was, 
we  are  told,  "the  form  of  God”  (Phil.  2:6,  9,  10). 
Therefore,  God  must  have  a  "form.”  It  is  clear,  then, 
that  though  “God  is  (essentially)  Spirit,”  neverthe¬ 
less  He  has  a  form  in  which  He  is  seen. 

5.  In  the  fifth  place.  The  fact  that  Jehovah  mani¬ 
fests  Himself  in  a  "form”  clearly  appears  from  Acts 

r-'55,5^-' 

“But  he  (i.  e.,  Stephen)  being  full  of  the 
Holy  Spirit,  looked  up  steadfastly  into  heaven, 
and  saw  the  glory  of  God,  and  Jesus  standing 
on  the  right  hand  of  God,  and  said.  Behold,  I 
see  the  heavens  opened,  and  the  Son  of  man 
standing  on  the  right  hand  of  God.” 

As  Stephen  saw  “Jesus  standing  at  the  right  hand 
of  God,”  he  must  have  seen  God  at  whose  right  hand 
he  saw  Him  standing. 

To  sum  up  the  substance  of  all  that  has  been  said 
on  this  point:  God,  in  His  essential  Personality,  is 
Spirit,  invisible,  incorporeal,  "unseeable,”  but  He  has 


GOD  IS  SPIRIT 


53 

a  form  in  which  He  manifests  Himself  in  the  heavenly 
world  and  is  seen. 

Therefore  Matt.  5  :  8,  “Blessed  are  the  pure  in  heart : 
for  they  shall  see  God/^  is  true  of  not  only  a  spiritual 
vision  of  God  but  of  an  actual,  visible,  bodily  seeing  of 
God,  God  in  a  visible  “form.”  Such  a  vision  of  God 
is  so  glorious  that  we  could  not  see  Him  in  that  way  in 
our  present  mortal  bodies  and  live.  And  Jehovah  said 
to  Moses  in  Ex.  33 : 20,  “Thou  canst  not  see  my  face; 
for  man  shall  not  see  me  and  live.”  What  deep  signi¬ 
ficance  this  gives  to  Ps.  17:15  (as  correctly 
rendered  in  the  R.  V.),  “As  for  me,  I  shall 
behold  thy  face  in  righteousness;  I  shall  be  satisfied, 
when  1  awake,  with  beholding  thy  form.'’  (Cf.  on  the 
usage  and  meaning  of  the  Hebrew  word  here  trans¬ 
lated  “form”  Numbers  12:8;  Job  4:16;  Deut.  4:  12, 
15  in  the  Hebrew.)  It  also  gives  new  meaning  to 
those  wonderful  words  of  our  Lord  in  Jno.  14:  9,  “He 
that  hath  seen  me  hath  seen  the  Father.”  In  the  per¬ 
son  of  Jesus  in  His  humiliation,  when  He  had  put  off 
for  the  time  being  the  Divine  “form”  (Phil.  2:6,  7), 
men  saw  God  as  in  a  mirror,  darkly  (in  an  enigma), 
but  in  that  coming  day  when  having  resumed  the  Di¬ 
vine  form  He  comes  back  again,  in  Him  we  shall  see 
God  fully  revealed  (“face  to  face”)  (I  Cor.  13:  12), 
see  God  in  His  full  and  undimmed  glory.  That  is  the 
highest  joy  which  man  is  capable  of  knowing. 


CHAPTER  III 


THERE  IS  ONLY  ONE  GOD.  ARE  THERE  THREE  PERSONS 

IN  THE  ONE  GOD? 

The  general  subject  of  this  chapter  is  the  same  as 
that  of  the  two  preceding  chapters,  The  God  of  the 
Bible :  The  God  of  the  Bible  as  distinguished  from 
the  god  of  ‘Theosophy,”  the  god  of  “Christian  Sci¬ 
ence,”  the  god  of  “New  Thought,”  the  god  of  “Spir¬ 
itualism,”  the  God  of  “Unitarianism,”  the  God  of  the 
“New  Theology,”  the  god  of  “Modern  Philosophy”  and 
the  god  of  “Modernism”  in  general.  The  particular 
subject  of  the  first  chapter  was,  The  God  of  the  Bible : 
A  Personal  God.  The  particular  subject  of  the  last 
chapter  was  The  God  of  the  Bible:  God  is  Spirit. 
The  particular  subject  of  this  chapter  is,  “The  God 
of  the  Bible :  There  is  only  one  God.  Are  there  three 
persons  in  this  one  God?”  I  have  nine  texts.  Listen 
to  them  very  carefully,  for  my  whole  thought  is  con¬ 
tained  in  these  nine  texts,  and  they  prove  beyond  a 
question  that  the  first  part  of  my  subject  is  true, 
namely,  that,  according  to  the  Bible  there  is  only  one 
God;  and  they  also  contain  a  definite  and  clear  answer 
to  the  question  contained  in  the  last  part  of  my  sub¬ 
ject,  '^Are  there  three  persons  in  this  one  God?” 

My  first  text  is  Jno.  17:3: 

“And  this  is  life  eternal,  that  they  should 

54 


THERE  IS  ONLY  ONE  GOD 


55 

know  thee  the  only  true  God,  and  him  whom 
thou  didst  send,  even  Jesus  Christ.’’ 

My  second  text  is  I  Jno.  5:20,  21 : 

“And  we  know  that  the  Son  of  God  is  come, 
and  hath  given  us  an  understanding,  that  we 
know  him  that  is  true,  and  we  are  in  him  that 
is  true,  even  in  his  Son  Jesus  Christ.  This  is, 
the  true  God,  and  eternal  life.  My  little  chil¬ 
dren,  guard  yourselves  from  idols.” 

My  third  text  is  Deut.  6:4,  5  : 

“Hear,  O  Israel;  Jehovah  our  God  is  one 
Jehovah:  And  thou  shalt  love  Jehovah  thy  God 
with  all  thine  heart,  and  with  all  thy  sonl,  and 
with  all  thy  might.” 

My  fourth  text  is  Mark  12:29,  30: 

“Jesus  answered.  The  first  is,  Hear,  O  Israel; 
The  Lord  our  God,  the  Lord  is  one;  and  thou 
shalt  love  the  Lord  thy  God  with  all  thy  heart, 
and  with  all  thy  soul,  and  with  all  thy  mind, 
and  with  all  thy  strength.” 

My  fifth  text  is  Gen.  1:26: 

“And  God  said.  Let  us  make  man  in  our 
image,  after  our  likeness.” 

My  sixth  text  is  Jno.  20:28: 

“Thomas  answered  and  said  unto  him,  My 
Lord  and  my  God.” 

My  seventh  text  is  Jno.  i :  1-3,  14: 

“In  the  beginning  was  the  Word,  and  the 
Word  was  with  God,  and  the  Word  was  God. 
The  same  was  in  the  beginning  with  God.  All 
things  were  made  through  him;  and  without 
him  was  not  anything  made  that  hath  been 


5^ 


THE  GOD  OF  THE  BIBLE 


made.  .  .  ,  And  the  Word  became  flesh,  and 
dwelt  among  us  (and  we  beheld  his  glory,  glory 
as  of  the  only  begotten  from  the  Father),  full 
of  grace  and  truth.^’ 

My  eighth  text  is  Rom.  9:5: 

“Of  whom  is  the  Christ  as  concerning  the 
flesh,  who  is  over  all,  God  blessed  forever. 
Amen.” 

My  ninth  text  is  H  Cor.  13:  14: 

“And  the  grace  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
and  the  love  of  God,  and  the  communion  of 
the  Holy  Spirit,  be  with  you  all.” 

1.  There  Is  Only  One  God. 

The  first  fact  about  God  that  our  texts  teach  is 
that,  There  is  only  one  God.  This  is  the  great  founda¬ 
tion  truth  of  the  Bible  from  the  very  first  verse  in  it, 
“In  the  beginning  God  created  the  heavens  and  the 
earth,”  to  the  close  of  the  last  book  in  it.  Intelligent 
Israelites  have  always  considered  Deut.  6:4,  5,  “Hear, 
O  Israel;  Jehovah  our  God  is  one  Jehovah:  And  thou 
shalt  love  Jehovah  thy  God  with  all  thy  heart,  and 
with  all  thy  soul,  and  with  all  thy  might,”  as  the  very 
heart  of  the  revelation  made  by  God  to  them  through 
Moses  and  the  Prophets  of  the  Old  Dispensation,  and 
our  Lord  Jesus  Himself  endorsed  this  view  by  saying 
in  answer  to  a  question  asked  him  by  one  of  the 
scribes,  “What  commandment  is  first  of  all?”  “The 
first  is.  Hear,  O  Israel;  The  Lord  our  God,  the  Lord 
is  one:  and  thou  shalt  love  the  Lord  thy  God  with  all 
thy  heart,  and  with  all  thy  soul,  and  with  all  thy 


THERE  IS  ONLY  ONE  GOD 


57 

mind,  and  with  all  thy  strength’’  (Mark  12:29,  30). 
The  Religion  of  the  Bible  has  no  toleration  for 
Polytheism  in  any  form.  It  is  Monotheistic  from  start 
to  finish. 

In  this  respect  the  God  of  the  Bible  differs  from 
the  god  of  “Theosophy.”  Theosophy  is  simply  Bud-  < 
dhism  in  a  new  dress,  and  not  a  very  new  dress  at 
that.  Buddhism  is  Polytheism  gone  mad.  It  has  lit¬ 
erally  millions  of  gods.  And  when  you  get  to  the 
heart  of  Theosophy  you  find  it  has  a  multitude  of 
what  are  really  gods.  Indeed  when  you  get  to  the 
very  heart  of  Theosophy  we  are  all  gods  (except  when 
Theosophy  assumes  a  pantheistic  form,  in  which  case 
we  are  all  God,  and  there  is  no  God  except  us  and 
everything  else). 

The  same  thing  is  true  of  “Christian  Science.” 
“Christian  Science”  is  always  essentially  pantheistic  or 
polytheistic  or  a  combination  of  both  Pantheism  and 
Polytheism.  At  the  heart  of  “Christian  Science”  is  < 
the  thought  that  we  are  all  gods.  According  to  “Chris¬ 
tian  Science”  not  only  “God  is  Spirit,”  but  “Spirit 
is  God”  (“Science  and  Health,  with  Key  to  the  Scrip¬ 
tures,”  69th  edition,  p.  65),  and  we  are  all  essentially 
and  only  spirit,  and  to  think  that  we  have  bodies  is 
“illusion”  or  “mortal  thought,”  therefore,  we  are  all 
gods.  According  to  “Christian  Science,”  think  that 
you  are  God  and  you  are  God.  Mrs.  Eddy  says  in 
“Science  and  Health,  with  Key  to  the  Scriptures,”  edi¬ 
tion  1903,  page  467,  in  a  section  entitled,  “Questions 
and  Answers”:  ‘^Question. — What  is  God?  Answer. 
— God  is  Divine  principle,  Supreme,  Incorporeal  Be¬ 
ing,  Mind,  Spirit,  Soul,  Life,  Truth,  Love.  Question. 


58  THE  GOD  OF  THE  BIBLE 

— Are  these  terms  synonymous  ?  Answer, — They  are ; 
they  refer  to  one  absolute  God  and  nothing  else.  They 
are  also  intended  to  express  the  nature,  essence,  and 
holiness  of  Deity.”  On  page  466  she  says,  ^'Question. 
— What  are  spirits  and  souls?”  Answer. — To  human 
belief  they  are  personalities  constituted  of  Mind  and 
matter.  Life  and  death,  Truth  and  error.  Good  and 
evil;  but  these  contrasting  pairs  of  terms  represent 
opposites,  as  Christian  Science  reveals, — neither  dwell¬ 
ing  together  nor  assimilating.”  A  little  further  on  on 
the  same  page  she  says,  ^‘The  term  souls  or  spirits  is 
as  improper  as  the  term  gods.  Soul,  or  Spirit,  signifies 
Deity  and  nothing  else.  There  is  no  finite  soul  or 
spirit.  These  terms  mean  only  one  Mind,  and  cannot 
be  rendered  in  the  plural.  Heathen  mythology  and 
Jewish  theology  have  perpetuated  the  fallacy  that  in¬ 
telligence,  soul,  and  life  can  be  in  matter;  and  idolatry 
and  ritualism  are  the  outcome  of  these  man-made  be¬ 
liefs.  The  Science  of  Christianity  comes  with  fan  in 
hand,  to  separate  the  chaff  from  the  wheat.”  On  page 
467  she  says,  ''Question. — What  is  the  science  of  soul  ? 
Answer. — The  first  demand  of  this  science  is,  Thou 
shall  have  no  other  gods  before  me.’  This  me  is 
spirit.”  A  few  lines  further  on  in  the  same  page  she 
says,  “It  should  be  well  understood  that  all  men  have 
one  Mind,  one  God  and  Father,  one  Life,  Truth,  and 
Love.”  Two  lines  further  on  she  says,  “Having  no 
other  gods,  turning  to  no  other  mind  but  the  one  perfect 
Intelligence  to  guide  him,  man  is  the  likeness  of  God, 
pure  and  eternal,  having  that  mind  which  was  also  in 
Christ  Jesus.”  On  page  469  she  says,  “We  lose  the 
high  significance  of  omnipotence,  when  admitting  that 


THERE  IS  ONLY  ONE  GOD 


59 

God,  or  good,  is  omnipresent,  and  has  all-power,  yet  ( 
that  there  is  another  power  named  evil.  This  belief, 
that  there  is  more  than  one  mind,  is  as  pernicious  to 
divine  theology  as  our  ancient  mythology  and  pagan 
idolatry/’  Further  on  in  the  same  paragraph  she  says, 
*^The  existence  of  more  than  one  mind  was  the  basic 
error  of  idolatry.”  To  quote  once  more  from  Mrs. 
Eddy;  she  says  in  “Science  and  Health,  with  Key  to 
the  Scriptures,”  69th  edition,  page  65,  “Spirit  cannot 
believe  in  God.  Spirit  is  God.”  The  necessary  corol¬ 
lary  of  this  is,  that  in  so  far  as  you  and  I  are  spirit, 
you  and  I  are  God.  And  it  is  the  constant  teaching 
of  Mrs.  Eddy  that  in  pure  Science  you  and  I  are  only 
spirit,  and  it  is  only  to  “mortal  thought”  or  “error” 
that  we  have  bodies  at  all.  Therefore,  every  one  of 
us,  in  the  highest  thought  of  “Christian  Science,”  is 
God. 

The  same  thing  that  we  have  said  of  “Theosophy” 
and  of  “Christian  Science,”  namely,  that  they  are  es¬ 
sentially  polytheistic  or  pantheistic,  is  also  true  of  much 
of  the  so-called  “New  Theology,”  and  of  a  very  large 
share  of  “Modern  Philosophy.”  Prof.  Geo.  Al¬ 
bert  Coe,  Professor  in  Union  Theological  Seminary, 
New  York,  writes,  “I  worship  the  God,  who  breathing 
himself  everywhere  into  the  human  clod,  makes  it  a 
spirit,  a  social  craving,  even  the  spirit  of  humanity, 
yes,  the  spirit  of  a  possible  world  society.”  Now  listen 
carefully.  Professor  Coe  says,  “/  how  my  spirit  before 
the  spirit  of  the  world  democracy  that  is  to  be.”  (“Re¬ 
ligious  Education,”  October,  1916,  page  379), — Rev. 

R.  J.  Campbell,  the  erstwhile  leader  and  high  priest  of 
“the  New  Theology,”  said  in  a  sermon,  ”Sin  is  a  quest 


6o 


THE  GOD  OF  THE  BIBLE 


for  God — a  blundering  quest,  but  a  quest  for  all  that. 
Th-e  man  who  got  dead  drunk  last  night  did  so  because 
of  the  impulse  within  him  to  break  through  the  bar¬ 
riers  of  his  limitations,  to  express  himself,  and  to 
realize  the  more  abundant  life.  His  self-indulgence 
just  came  to  that;  he  wanted,  if  only  for  a  brief  hour, 
to  live  the  larger  life,  to  expand  the  soul,  to  enter 
untrodden  regions,  and  gather  to  himself  new  experi¬ 
ences.  That  drunken  debauch  was  a  quest  for  light, 
a  quest  for  God.  Men  who  in  their  sinful  follies  to¬ 
day,  their  trampling  upon  things  that  are  beautiful 
and  good,  are  engaged  in  this  dim,  blundering  quest 
for  God,  whom  to  know  is  life  eternal.”  The  un- 
escapable  inference  from  these  shocking  words  is  that 
everything  in  us,  even  our  sinful  propensities,  is  divine. 
It  would  not  be  fair  to  attribute  such  a  conception  of 
the  essential  divinity  of  man  at  his  worst  to  all  New 
Theology  men.  R.  J.  Campbell’s  statement  represents 
New  Theology  on  a  drunk,  or  The  New  Theology 
gone  stark  crazy ;  but,  after  all,  this  is  really  the  logical 
outcome  of  the  fundamental  principles  of  Modernistic 
thinking,  and  of  the  thinking  of  much  that  passes  for 
"‘‘Modern  Scholarship”  and  “Modern  Philosophy.” 
We  need  Paul’s  warning  to-day  as  much  as  the  saints 
in  Colosse  needed  it,  “Beware  lest  any  man  spoil  you 
(or  make  spoil  of  you)  through  his  philosophy  and 
vain  deceit,  after  the  tradition  of  men,  after  the  rudi¬ 
ments  (elements)  of  the  world,  and  not  after  Christ” 
(Col.  2:8). 

But  in  the  Bible,  the  thought  that  there  is  a  Per¬ 
sonal  God,  separate  and  distinct  from  all  the  things 


THERE  IS  ONLY  ONE  GOD 


6i 


and  persons  which  He  has  created,  and  that  there  is 
but  one  God,  dominates  the  whole  Book,  both  the  Old 
Testament  and  the  New. 

In  Deut.  4:35  we  read: 

“Unto  thee  it  was  showed,  that  thou  might- 
est  know  that  Jehovah  he  is  God;  there  is  none 
else  beside  him.^' 

In  Isa.  43:  10,  II,  we  read: 

“Ye  are  my  witnesses,  saith  Jehovah,  and 
my  servant  whom  I  have  chosen :  that  ye  may 
know  and  believe  me,  and  understand  that  I 
am  he :  before  me  there  was  no  God  formed, 
neither  shall  there  he  after  me.  I,  even  am 
Jehovah;  and  beside  me  there  is  no  saviour.” 

In  Isa.  44:6  we  read : 

“Thus  saith  Jehovah,  the  King  of  Israel,  and 
his  Redeemer,  Jehovah  of  hosts;  I  am  the  first, 
and  I  am  the  last;  and  beside  me  there  is  no 
God.” 

And  in  Isa.  45  :  5  we  read : 

“I  am  Jehovah,  there  is  none  else;  beside 
me  there  is  no  God.” 

In  I  Tim.  2 :  5  we  read : 

“For  there  is  one  God,  and  one  mediator  also 
between  God  and  men,  himself  man,  Christ 
Jesus.’’ 

And  our  Lord  Jesus  Himself  said  to  the  rich  young 
man  who  came  to  him  kneeling  and  calling  Him 
“good,”  but  not  understanding  the  deeper  meaning  that 
there  was  in  his  own  words,  which  were  profoundly 
true  but  the  truth  of  which  he  did  not  grasp,  and 


62 


THE  GOD  OF  THE  BIBLE 


which  our  Lord  desired  that  he  should  grasp,  ^Why 
callest  thou  me  good?  none  is  good  save  one,  even 
God”  (Mark  lo:  i8). 

That  there  is  one  God  and  only  one  God  is  the  great 
foundation  rock  of  all  truly  Bible  thought,  New  Tes¬ 
tament  thought  as  well  as  Old  Testament  thought. 

11.  'Are  There  Three  Persons  in  the  One  God? 

We  come  now  to  the  second  division  of  our  subject 
and  a  tremendously  important  division  it  is,  Are  there 
three  persons  in  the  one  Godf  Many  conclude,  because 
it  is  so  plainly  and  so  constantly  taught  in  the  Bible 
that  there  is  only  one  God,  that  therefore  God  the 
Father  is  the  whole  that  there  is  of  that  one  God; 
and  that,  therefore,  Jesus  Christ  cannot  be  God,  and 
the  Holy  Spirit  cannot  be  God.  That  is  the  funda¬ 
mental  contention  of  Unitarianism,  and  of  both  Or¬ 
thodox  and  Liberal  Jewish  Theology.  It  was  this 
thought  that  gave  rise  to  Modern  Unitarianism. 

Does  it  follow,  because  there  is  only  one  God,  that 
Jesus  Christ  cannot  be  God  and  that  the  Holy  Spirit 
cannot  be  God?  No.  We  shall  see  directly  by  the 
teachings  of  the  whole  Bible,  by  the  teachings  of  the 
Old  Testament  as  clearly  as  by  the  teachings  of  the 
New  Testament,  that  there  are  three  Divine  Persons 
in  the  One  Godhead. 

I.  In  the  first  place,  The  Hebrew  zuord  translated 
''one”  in  these  various  passages  from  the  Old  Testa¬ 
ment  which  I  have  quoted  as  conclusively  proving  that 
there  is  only  one  God,  denotes  a  compound  unity  and 
not  a  simple  unity.  Let  me  illustrate.  In  Gen.  2 :  24 


THERE  IS  ONLY  ONE  GOD  63 

we  read,  “Therefore  shall  a  man  leave  his  father  and 
his  mother,  and  shall  cleave  unto  his  wife:  and  they 
shall  be  one  flesh.”  Now  the  Hebrew  word  translated 
“one”  in  this  passage  is  the  same  word  that  is  trans¬ 
lated  “one”  in  all  these  various  passages  that  declare 
that  there  is  only  ^‘one  God,”  and  it  can  be  plainly  seen 
in  this  passage  that  not  a  simple  unity  but  a  compound 
unity  is  intended;  two,  man  and  wife,  being  ''one/' 
Turn  now  to  Gen.  11:6  and  you  will  read,  “Jehovah 
said.  Behold,  they  are  one  people.”  The  same  Hebrew 
word  for  “one”  is  used  here.  Here  we  are  told  that 
a  large  number  of  people  are  one  people;  they  are  at 
the  same  time  many  and  one.  We  find  a  similar 
usage  for  the  Greek  word  for  “one”  in  the  New  Tes¬ 
tament.  Read  e.  g.,  I  Cor.  3 : 6-8,  “I  planted,  Apollos 
watered;  but  God  gave  the  increase.  So  then  neither 
is  he  that  planteth  anything,  neither  he  that  watereth; 
but  God  that  giveth  the  increase.  Now  he  that  plant¬ 
eth  and  he  that  watereth  are  one.”  Here  we  are  dis¬ 
tinctly  told  that  two  different  persons  are  "one.”  Turn 
to  I  Cor.  12:  13,  “For  in  one  Spirit  we  were  all  bap¬ 
tized  into  one  body,  whether  Jews  or  Greeks,  whether 
bond  or  free;  and  were  all  made  to  drink  of  one 
Spirit.”  Here  we  are  distinctly  told  that  all  who  have 
become  members  of  the  living  church  by  the  baptism 
in  the  Holy  Spirit  are  all  together  "one.”  In  the 
same  way  we  read  in  Gal.  3 :  28,  “There  can  be  neither 
Jew  nor  Greek,  there  can  be  neither  bond  nor  free, 
there  can  be  no  male  and  female:  for  ye  all  are  one 
man  in  Christ  Jesus.”  Here  we  find  a  large  number 
of  persons  constituting  one  man. 

2.  In  the  second  place,  The  Old  Testament  Hebrew 


THE  GOD  OF  THE  BIBLE 


64 

words  most  frequently  used  as  the  name  {or  title) 
of  God,  the  word  translated  ''God’'  many  hundreds  of 
times  in  the  Old  T  estament,  is  plural  in  its  form.  Liter¬ 
ally  translated  the  word  would  read  “Gods/^  For  ex¬ 
ample,  in  the  very  passage  which  I  have  chosen  for  one 
of  my  texts,  and  which  is  the  passage  the  Unitarians 
and  non-Christian  Jews  so  emphasize  and  insist  upon, 
namely  Deut.  6 : 4,  literally  translated  would  read, 
“Hear,  O  Israel,  Jehovah  our  Gods  is  one  Jehovah.” 
Why  is  it  that  the  Jews  with  their  intense  monotheism 
had  a  plural  name  for  God?  That  was  the  difficult 
problem  that  puzzled  the  Old  Hebrew  lexicographers 
and  grammarians.  The  best  answer  that  they  could 
give  was  that  the  plural  form  used  for  the  name  (or 
title)  of  God  was  the  “pluralis  majestatis,”  that  is 
the  plural  of  majesty.  That  is  to  say,  that  a  plural 
name  was  used  for  God  because  of  the  majesty  of 
His  Person.  Now,  to  say  nothing  of  the  fact  that 
it  is  not  at  all  certain  that  the  “pluralis  majestatis” 
is  ever  found  in  the  Old  Testament,  there  is  an  ex¬ 
planation  much  nearer  at  hand  and  much  simpler,  and 
that  is,  that  a  plural  name  was  used  for  the  one  God, 
in  spite  of  the  intense  monotheism  of  the  Jews,  be¬ 
cause  there  is  a  plurality  of  persons  in  the  one  God¬ 
head.  This  is  a  rational  explanation  of  this  indubitable 
fact,  and  no  other  explanation  is  as  rational. 

3.  In  the  third  place.  In  the  Old  Testament  God 
uses  plural  pronouns  in  speaking  of  Himself.  He  does 
this  in  the  very  first  chapter  of  the  Bible  in  Gen.  i :  26 
where  it  is  written,  “And  God  said.  Let  us  make  man 
in  our  image,  after  our  likeness.”  It  is  often  said  that 
the  doctrine  of  there  being  three  persons  in  the  God- 


THERE  IS  ONLY  ONE  GOD  65 

head  is  found  in  the  New  Testament,  but  not  in  the 
Old  Testament,  but  here  it  is  in  the  first  chapter  of 
the  Old  Testament.  Indeed  the  three  persons  of  the 
Trinity  are  found  in  the  first  three  verses  of  the  Old 
Testament,  “In  the  beginning  God  (here  we  have  God 
the  Father)  created  the  heavens  and  the  earth.  And 
the  earth  was  waste  and  void;  and  darkness  was  upon 
the  face  of  the  deep.  And  the  Spirit  of  God  (here 
you  have  the  Holy  Spirit)  moved  upon  the  face  of 
the  waters.  And  God  said  (here  you  have  the  Word 
of  God,  the  Word  Who  became  incarnate  in  the  person 
of  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  Jno.  i :  1-3),  Let  there  be  light: 
and  there  was  light.”  It  is  an  interesting  and  sugges¬ 
tive  fact,  though  I  do  not  know  that  there  is  really 
anything  in  it,  that  the  first  three  letters  in  the  Hebrew 
Bible  are  the  initials  of  the  Father,  Son,  and  Holy 
Spirit.  The  first  letter  in  the  Hebrew  Bible  is  the 
Hebrew  equivalent  of  “B”  which  is  the  initial  of  the 
Hebrew  word  “Ben,”  which  signifies  Son.  The  second 
letter  of  the  Hebrew  Bible  is  the  Hebrew  equivalent 
of  “R,”  which  is  the  initial  of  “Ruach,”  which  means 
Spirit.  And  the  third  letter  of  the  Hebrew  Bible  is 
the  Hebrew  equivalent  of  our  “A,”  which  is  the  initial 
of  Ab,  which  means  Father.  Whether  there  is  any 
significance  in  that  fact  or  not,  it  is  certainly  true  that 
the  three  persons  of  the  Trinity  are  in  the  first  three 
verses  of  the  Old  Testament,  and  that  in  the  26th  verse 
of  the  first  chapter  of  the  Old  Testament  the  plurality 
of  persons  in  the  Godhead  is  distinctly  taught.  We 
see  this  same  thing  again  in  the  vision  of  God  that 
Jehovah  gave  to  Isaiah  in  the  sixth  chapter  of  Isaiah, 
where  we  read  in  verse  8,  “I  heard  the  voice  of  the 


66 


THE  GOD  OF  THE  BIBLE 


Lord,  saying,  Whom  shall  I  send,  and  who  will  go 
for  us?”  These  are  not  the  only  instances  in  which 
Jehovah  is  represented  in  the  Old  Testament  as  using 
plural  pronouns  in  speaking  of  Himself,  but  these  are 
sufficient  to  prove  the  point. 

There  is  another  suggestion  of  the  Tri-personality 
of  God  in  the  same  sixth  chapter  of  Isaiah  in  verses 
one  to  three : 

‘Tn  the  year  that  king  Uzziah  died  I  saw 
the  Lord  sitting  upon  a  throne,  high  and  lifted 
up,  and  his  train  filled  the  temple.  Above  him 
stood  the  seraphim;  each  one  had  six  wings; 
with  twain  he  covered  his  face,  and  with  twain 
he  covered  his  feet,  and  with  twain  he  did  fly. 
And  one  cried  unto  another,  and  said.  Holy, 
holy,  holy  is  Jehovah  of  hosts :  the  whole  earth 
is  full  of  his  glory.” 

Is  there  not  in  this  threefold  ''Holy,”  and  especially 
when  taken  in  connection  with  verse  eight,  a  sugges¬ 
tion  of  the  Tri-personality  of  “Jehovah  of  Hosts”? 
Furthermore,  in  the  New  Testament  this  vision  is  re¬ 
ferred  to,  and  it  is  said  in  one  place  where  it  is  referred 
to,  Jno.  12:37-41,  that  Isaiah  spoke  the  words  that 
he  is  recorded  as  speaking  in  Isa.  6,  when  he  saw 
the  glory  of  the  Lord  Jesus  and  spoke  of  Him,  whereas 
in  the  passage  in  Isaiah  we  are  distinctly  told  that  it 
was  Jehovah's  glory  that  Isaiah  saw.  In  another  place 
in  the  New  Testament  where  this  same  vision  of 
Isaiah  is  referred  to  we  are  distinctly  told  that  it  was 
the  Holy  Spirit  who  said  on  this  occasion  what  Je¬ 
hovah  is  recorded  to  have  said  (Acts  28:25-27). 

4.  In  the  fourth  place,  in  Zech.  2:10,  ii,  Jehovah 


\ 


THERE  IS  ONLY  ONE  GOD 


67 

speaks  of  Himself  as  sent  by  Jehovah^  thus  clearly  im- 
plying  at  least  two  distinct  persons  in  the  one  God 
Jehovah.  Let  me  read  the  passage : 

^^Sing  and  rejoice,  O  daughter  of  Zion:  for, 
lo,  I  come,  and  I  will  dwell  in  the  midst  of 
thee,  saith  Jehovah.  And  many  nations  shall 
join  themselves  to  Jehovah  in  that  day,  and 
shall  be  my  people;  and  I  will  dwell  in  the 
midst  of  thee,  and  thou  shalt  know  that  Je¬ 
hovah  of  hosts  hath  sent  me  unto  thee.” 

Here  we  have  Jehovah  as  both  the  one  sending  and 
the  one  sent  (cf.  Jno.  8:29;  14 :  24) . 

5.  In  the  fifth  place.  We  saw  in  the  preceding 
chapter  that  '"The  Angel  of  Jehovah''  was  at  the  same 
time  identified  with  Jehovah  and  distinguished  from 
Him,  and  we  saw  by  a  comparison  of  Judges  13:8 
(R.  V.)  with  Isaiah  9:6,  7,  that  beyond  a  question 
‘The  Angel  of  Jehovah”  was  that  Person  of  the  God¬ 
head  who  afterwards  became  incarnate  in  the  Mes¬ 
siah. 

6.  In  the  sixth  place,  We  are  distinctly  told  in  Jno. 

1:1-3,  ^4  eternal  Word  of  God  who  after¬ 

ward  became  incarnate  in  Jesus  of  Nazareth  ''zvas 
zvith  God"  and  ''Was  (Himself)  God."  You  are  per¬ 
fectly  familiar  with  the  words,  but  let  me  quote  them 
to  you : 

“In  the  beginning  was  the  Word,  and  the 
Word  was  with  God,  and  the  Word  was  God. 
The  same  was  in  the  beginning  with  God.  All 
things  were  made  through  him;  and  without 
him  was  not  anything  made  that  hath  been 
made.  .  .  .  And  the  Word  became  flesh,  and 


68 


THE  GOD  OF  THE  BIBLE 


dwelt  among  us  (and  we  beheld  his  glory,  glory 
as  of  the  only  begotten  from  the  Father),  full 
of  grace  and  truth.” 

7.  In  the  seventh  place,  Both  Jesus  Christy  the  Son 
of  God,  and  the  Holy  Spirit,  are  clearly  set  forth  in 
the  New  T estanient  as  Divine  Persons.  I  could  show 
you  that,  if  it  were  necessary,  in  many  ways  and  by 
a  multiplicity  of  passages  that  it  would  take  hours  to 
read  and  adequately  expound.  Let  three  of  my  texts 
and  one  other  passage  suffice.  Rom.  9:5: 

“Of  whom  is  Christ  as  concerning  the  flesh, 
who  is  over  all,  God  blessed  for  ever.” 

Jno.  20:  28,  29 : 

“Thomas  answered  and  said  unto  him  (that 
is,  unto  Jesus),  My  Lord  and  my  God.  Jesus 
saith  unto  him.  Because  thou  hast  seen  me,  thou 
hast  believed :  blessed  are  they  that  have  not 
seen,  and  yet  have  believed.” 

H  Cor.  13 :  14: 

“The  grace  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  the 
love  of  God,  and  the  communion  of  the  Holy 
Spirit,  be  with  you  all.” 

And  Acts  5:3,4: 

“But  Peter  said,  Ananias,  why  hath  Satan 
filled  thy  heart  to  lie  to  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  to 
keep  back  part  of  the  price  of  the  land?  Whiles 
it  remained,  did  it  not  remain  thine  own?  and 
after  it  was  sold,  was  it  not  in  thy  power? 
How  is  it  that  thou  hast  conceived  this  thing 
in  thy  heart?  thou  hast  not  lied  unto  men,  but 
unto  God.” 


THERE  IS  ONLY  ONE  GOD  69 

In  the  third  verse  Peter  distinctly  says  that  Ananias 
lied  “to  the  Holy  Spirit,”  and  in  the  fourth  verse 
he  as  distinctly  says  that  he  lied  ''unto  God/'  thus 
clearly  teaching  that  the  Holy  Spirit  was  God, 

8.  In  the  eighth  place,  The  Old  Testament  clearly 
declares  the  predicted  Messiah  to  he  a  Divine  Person, 
just  as  clearly  as  the  New  Testament  declares  the  his¬ 
toric  Christ,  Christ  Jesus,  to  he  a  Divine  Person. 
Let  me  give  you  a  few  passages.  First  of  all  Micah 
5:2: 

“But  thou,  Bethlehem  Ephrathah,  which  art 
little  to  be  among  the  thousands  of  Judah,  out 
of  thee  shall  one  come  forth  unto  me  that  is  to 
he  rider  in  Israel;  whose  coming  forth  was 
from  of  old,  from  everlasting/' 

Here  the  coming  Messiah  is  distinctly  predicted  as 
a  Person  who  has  existed  eternally.  Turn  now  to 
Isa.  9:6,  7 : 

“For  unto  us  a  child  is  born,  unto  us  a  son 
is  given :  and  the  government  shall  be  upon  his 
shoulder:  and  his  name  shall  be  called  Wonder¬ 
ful,  Counsellor,  Mighty  God,  Everlasting 
Father,  The  Prince  of  Peace.  Of  the  increase 
of  his  government  and  peace  there  shall  be  no 
end,  upon  the  throne  of  David,  and  upon  his 
kingdom,  to  establish  it  with  justice  and  with 
righteousness  from  hence  forth  even  forever.” 

There  are  at  least  three  unmistakably  Divine  Names 
attributed  to  the  coming  Messiah  in  this  wonderful 
prediction,  one  of  those  Divine  Names  being,  "Mighty 
God."  Isaac  Leeser,  the  crafty  Jew,  in  his  translation 


THE  GOD  OF  THE  BIBLE 


70 

into  English  of  the  Hebrew  Bible,  has  inserted  four 
words  in  this  verse  for  which  there  are  no  equivalent 
words  whatever  in  the  Hebrew  text,  and  he  inserts 
them  for  the  specific  purpose  of  obscuring  the  signifi¬ 
cance  of  the  passage’s  clear  declaration  that  the  Mes¬ 
siah  was  to  be  a  Divine  Person.  He  puts  the  preposi¬ 
tion  “of”  and  the  definite  article  “the”  before  “Mighty 
God,”  so  as  to  make  it  read,  “Counsellor  of  the  Mighty 
God,”  and  he  inserts  the  same  two  words  before,  “it 
everlasting  Father.”  As  I  say,  there  are  no  equivalent 
words  whatever  for  these  four  words  in  the  Hebrew 
text.  Leeser  knows  this;  for  he  himself  has  not  in¬ 
serted  “of”  before  the  “Prince  of  Peace,”  and  there  is 
just  as  much  reason  for  inserting  it  there  as  before 
“Mighty  God”  or  “Everlasting  Father.”  In  the  re¬ 
cent  ecclesiastically  authorized  translation  of  the  He¬ 
brew  Bible  into  English,  authorized  by  the  Jewish 
authorities,  it  is  sought  to  conceal  the  meaning  that  is 
so  plainly  in  this  verse,  by  not  translating  the  names  at 
all  but  transliterating  the  Hebrew.  But  there  can  be 
no  doubt  about  it  to  any  honest  student  of  the  Hebrew 
Bible,  that  at  least  three  distinctly  Divine  Names  are 
ascribed  to  the  Messiah  in  this  passage.  Turn  now 
to  Jer.  23:5,  6: 

“Behold,  the  days  come,  saith  Jehovah,  that 
I  will  raise  unto  David  a  righteous  Branch,  and 
he  shall  reign  as  King,  and  deal  wisely,  and 
execute  judgment  and  righteousness  in  the 
land.  In  his  days  Judah  shall  be  saved,  and 
Israel  shall  dwell  safely :  and  this  is  his  name 
whereby  he  shall  be  called,  Jehovah  our 
righteousness.'' 


THERE  IS  ONLY  ONE  GOD 


71 


In  one  of  the  unquestionably  Messianic  Psalms,  Ps. 
45 :  6,  we  read  these  words  addressed  to  the  coming 
Messiah : 

'‘Thy  throne,  O  God,  is  forever  and  ever:  a 
sceptre  of  equity  is  the  sceptre  of  thy  kingdom. 
Thou  hast  loved  righteousness  and  hated  wick¬ 
edness:  therefore  God,  thy  God,  hath  anointed 
thee  with  the  oil  of  gladness  above  thy  fel¬ 
lows.” 

Here  we  have  the  coming  Messiah  distinctly  named 
as  a  Divine  Person.  He  is  called  “God,”  yet  at  the 
same  time  He  is  distinguished  from  “God,”  who 
anointed  Him  with  the  Holy  Spirit  to  qualify  Him 
for  His  work.  It  is  clear  then  that  the  Messiah  of  the 
Old  Testament  was  to  be  a  Divine  Person,  “God’' 
manifested  in  a  human  person,  God  incarnate,  just  as 
clearly  as  it  is  asserted  that  when  the  Messiah  Jesus 
of  Nazareth  was  born  and  lived  and  died  and  rose 
again  and  ascended  to  the  right  hand  of  the  Father, 
He  was  a  Divine  Person,  God  in  human  form,  God 
incarnate. 

Six  of  these  eight  reasons  just  given  would  prove 
that  in  the  teaching  of  the  Old  Testament  as  well  as 
in  the  teaching  of  the  New  Testament  there  are  three 
Divine  Persons  in  the  one  Godhead,  but  taking  the 
eight  reasons  together  there  is  no  possibility  of  doubt 
on  the  part  of  any  one  who  is  really  trying  to  find 
out  what  the  Bible,  both  Old  and  New  Testament, 
teaches,  that  in  the  only  One  God  of  the  Bible  there 
are  three  persons. 

A  heretical  sect  arose  in  the  early  history  of  the 
Church,  called  Sabellians  after  Sabellius,  their  leader, 


THE  GOD  OF  THE  BIBLE 


72 

that  tried  to  explain  the  ascription  of  Deity  to  the 
Lord  Jesus  and  to  the  Holy  Spirit  and  to  reconcile 
this  fact  with  the  Bible  doctrine  that  there  was  but 
one  God,  by  saying  that,  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Spirit 
were  not  three  distinct  persons  but  three  different  ways 
in  zvhich  the  one  Person,  God,  manifested  Himself  at 
different  times,  sometimes  as  Father,  sometimes  as  Son 
and  sometimes  as  Holy  Spirit.  At  a  later  day,  Sweden¬ 
borg  adopted  this  explanation,  and  it  is  the  doctrine  of 
the  Swedenborgian  church  and  of  some  other  heretical 
churches  to-day.  But  it  will  not  bear  careful  examina¬ 
tion.  For  the  Bible,  while  clearly  ascribing  Deity  to 
the  Lord  Jesus  and  to  the  Holy  Spirit,  just  as  clearly 
distinguishes  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Spirit  from  one 
another,  e.  g.,  in  Matt.  3:16,  17: 

“And  Jesus,  when  he  was  baptised,  went  up 
straightway  from  the  water:  and  lo,  the 
heavens  were  opened  unto  him,  and  he  saw  the 
Spirit  of  God  descending  as  a  dove,  and  com¬ 
ing  upon  him;  and  lo,  a  voice  out  of  the  hea¬ 
vens,  saying.  This  is  my  beloved  Son,  in  whom 
I  am  well  pleased.” 

Here  it  is  distinctly  set  before  us  that  Jesus,  one 
Person,  was  standing  in  the  Jordan,  that  the  Father, 
another  Person,  spoke  to  Him  out  of  heaven,  and  that 
the  Spirit  of  God,  a  third  Person,  was  descending  from 
the  Father  through  the  air  to  the  Son.  Again,  read 
Matt.  28:19: 

“Go  ye,  therefore,  and  make  disciples  of  all 
the  nations,  baptising  them  into  the  name  of 
the  Father  and  of  the  Son  and  of  the  Holy 
Spirit^ 


THERE  IS  ONLY  ONE  GOD 


73 


Here  the  clearest  possible  distinction  is  drawn  be¬ 
tween  the  three  Persons  who  are  named  separately. 
Our  Lord  Jesus  did  not  say  “baptising  them  into  the 
name  of  the  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Spirit”  as  it  would 
be  necessary  to  say  if  they  were  simply  three  manifes¬ 
tations  of  the  one  God,  but  He  said,  “baptising  them 
into  the  name  of  the  Father  and  of  the  Son  and  of  the 
Holy  Spirit.”  Let  me  read  you  one  other  passage  that 
makes  this  same  distinction  perfectly  clear,  H  Cor. 
13:14: 

“The  grace  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and 
the  love  of  God,  and  the  communion  of  the 
Holy  Spirit,  be  with  you  all.” 

III.  How  Can  God  Be  Three  and  One  at  the  Same 
time? 


We  come  then  face  to  face  with  the  great  question 
that  has  rent  the  Church  from  the  earliest  centuries, 
and  that  also  caused  the  great  Unitarian  controversy 
that  shook  all  New  England  in  the  days  of  William 
Ellery  Channing,  a  great  thinker,  but  who  went  astray 
in  his  thinking  and  led  a  large  section  of  the  New 
England  churches  astray,  just  as  “Modernists”  are 
leading  large  sections  of  the  church  astray  to-day. 
But  Channing  and  his  associates  towered  far  above  all 
“Modernists”  in  the  clearness  and  depth  of  their  think¬ 
ing  and  in  the  earnestness  and  honesty  of  their  pur¬ 
pose. 

What  is  the  answer  to  the  question,  How  can  God 
he  Three  and  One  at  the  same  time?  The  answer  is 
this,  God  cannot  be  and  is  not  three  and  one  in  the 


74 


THE  GOD  OF  THE  BIBLE 


same  sense.  The  Unitarians  constantly  charge  that 
those  who  believe  in  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity,  make 
three  equal  one,  but  in  so  asserting  they  either  do  not 
understand  the  Evangelical  doctrine  of  the  Trinity  or 
else  they  deliberately  misrepresent  it.  We  do  not  think 
that  God  is  three  and  one  in  the  same  sense.  In  what 
sense  then  can  He  be  three  and  one  at  the  same  time? 
A  perfectly  satisfactory  answer  to  this  question  is 
from  the  very  nature  of  the  case  manifestly  impos¬ 
sible.  First,  because,  as  we  saw  in  our  last  chapter, 
“God  is  Spirit,”  and  numbers  apply  primarily  to  the 
physical  or  material  world,  and  difficulty  must  always 
arise  when  we  attempt  to  conceive  Spiritual  Being  in 
the  forms  of  material  thought.  Second,  because  God 
is  Infinite  and  we  are  finite.  He  dwelleth  in  the  light 
that  no  man  can  approach  unto  (I  Tim.  6:  i6),  and 
therefore  our  attempt  at  a  philosophical  explanation 
of  the  triunity  of  God  is  an  attempt  to  put  the  facts 
of  Infinite  Being  into  the  forms  of  finite  thought,  an 
attempt  to  put  the  ocean  of  truth  into  the  pint  cup  of 
the  human  understanding,  an  attempt  which  of  neces¬ 
sity  could  at  the  very  best  be  only  partially  successful. 

Furthermore,  number  has  significance  only  in  the 
realm  of  the  finite.  It  is  a  well  known  mathematical 
fact  that  when  you  get  into  the  realm  of  the  Infinite 
finite  numbers  lose  their  significance  and  value.  Any 
one  who  has  any  considerable  knowledge  of  mathema¬ 
tics  knows  that  one  divided  by  Infinity  equals  nothing, 
and  also  that  three  divided  by  Infinity  equals  nothing. 
Well  then,  as  things  equal  to  the  same  thing  are  equal 
to  one  another,  one  as  the  numerator  with  Infinity  as 
the  denominator  equals  three  as  the  numerator  with 


THERE  IS  ONLY  ONE  GOD 


75 

Infinity  as  the  denominator,  cancel  the  common  de¬ 
nominator,  Infinity,  and  you  have,  one  equals  three. 
Now  one  does  not  equal  three,  but  it  shows  that, 
when  you  get  into  the  realm  of  the  Infinite,  finite  num¬ 
bers  lose  their  significance  and  value. 

It  does  not  bother  me  at  all  that  there  is  something 
in  the  Bible  conception  of  God,  the  Infinite  One,  which 
it  is  not  possible  for  us  to  completely  grasp  with  our 
finite  minds.  Indeed  if  I  could  completely  and  thor¬ 
oughly  grasp  the  thought  of  God  given  me  in  the 
Bible,  I  should  be  bound  to  doubt  that  the  Bible  was 
a  full  revelation  from  the  Infinite  Mind.  The  very 
simplicity  of  the  Unitarian  conception  of  God  con¬ 
demns  it.  God’s  Being  as  well  as  God’s  “judgments” 
and  God’s  “ways,”  must  be  beyond  complete  “finding 
out”  by  the  finite  mind  (Rom.  ii :  13).  All  the  illus¬ 
trations  that  men  attempt  of  the  Triune  Personality 
of  God  as,  e.  g.,  the  illustrations  from  the  three-leaved 
shamrock  or  from  the  tripartite  nature  of  man,  spirit, 
soul  and  body,  are  of  no  value  because  they  are  illus¬ 
trations  taken  from  the  finite  with  which  to  illustrate 
the  Infinite. 

This  much  we  know,  that  God  is  essentially  One 
and  at  the  same  time  He  is  also  Three.  There  is  but 
One  God :  but  this  one  God  makes  Himself  known  to 
men  as  Father,  and  Son  and  Holy  Spirit,  and  these 
Three  are  separate  Personalities.  How  clearly  that 
appears  in  Jno.  14:  16  where  Jesus  says: 

“I  will  pray  the  Father,  and  He  shall  give 
you  another  Comforter,  that  He  may  be  with 
you  for  ever,  even  the  Spirit  of  truth.” 

Here  we  distinctly  see  one  Person,  the  Son,  praying 


THE  GOD  OF  THE  BIBLE 


76 

to  another  Person,  the  Father,  and  the  Father  in  an¬ 
swer  to  the  prayer  of  the  Son  sending  a  third  Person, 
''another  Comforter,  even  the  Spirit  of  truth” 

To  sum  up  the  Bible  conception  of  the  Unity  of 
God :  There  is  only  one  God,  Eternally  existing  and 
manifesting  Himself  in  three  Persons,  Father,  Son, 
and  Holy  Spirit.  So  we  can  say  to  the  Father,  “Thou 
art  God,’’  and  worship  Him;  and  we  can  say  to  the 
Son,  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  as  Thomas  said  to  Him, 
“My  Lord  and  my  God’^  and  worship  Him,  and  we 
can  also  address  the  Holy  Spirit  as  God  and  worship 
Him.  And  they  are  altogether  not  three  Gods  but 
one  God,  “Holy,  holy,  holy,  is  Jehovah  of  hosts,  the 
whole  earth  is  full  of  His  glory.’’  And  we  can  sing 
“Glory  be  to  the  Father,  and  to  the  Son,  and  to  the 
Holy  Spirit,  as  it  was  in  the  beginning  is  now  and  ever 
shall  be  world  without  end.  Amen.” 


CHAPTER  IV 


GOD  IS  EVERYWHERE.  IS  HE  ANYWHERE  IN 

PARTICULAR  ? 

The  general  subject  of  this  chapter  is,  The  God  of 
the  Bible  as  distinguished  from  the  god  of  '‘Theoso¬ 
phy”  and  the  god  of  “Christian  Science”  and  the  god 
of  “Spiritualism”  and  the  god  of  “New  Thought”  and 
the  God  of  “Unitarianism”  and  the  God  of  the  “New 
Theology”  and  the  god  of  “Modern  Philosophy”  and 
the  god  of  “Modernism”  in  general.  We  have  al¬ 
ready  seen  in  the  three  preceding  chapters  that  the 
God  of  the  Bible  is  a  Personal  God;  and  that  the  God 
of  the  Bible  is  essentially  Spirit,  invisible  and  incor¬ 
poreal,  but  that  He  has  manifested  Himself  to  men  in 
a  visible  form,  and  that  He  has  a  form  now  in  which 
He  manifests  Himself  in  the  celestial  world;  and  that, 
according  to  the  teaching  of  the  Bible,  there  is  but  one 
God,  but  that  in  this  one  God  there  are  three  persons, 
God  the  Father,  God  the  Son  (Jesus  Christ),  and  God 
the  Holy  Spirit. 

Our  particular  subject  is.  The  God  of  the 
Bible :  God  is  Everywhere.  Is  He  Anywhere  in  Par¬ 
ticular?  I  have  three  texts,  one  taken  from  the 
Psalms,  one  from  the  Prophets,  and  one  from  a  New 
Testament  Apostle.  You  will  find  the  first  text  in 
Ps.  139:7-12: 


77 


78 


THE  GOD  OF  THE  BIBLE 


“Whither  shall  I  go  from  thy  Spirit?  or 
whither  shall  I  flee  from  thy  presence?  If  I 
ascend  up  into  heaven,  thou  art  there:  if  I 
make  my  bed  in  Sheol  (the  Hebrew  equivalent 
of  the  Greek  Hades),  behold,  thou  art  there. 
If  I  take  the  wings  of  the  morning,  and  dwell 
in  the  uttermost  parts  of  the  sea;  even  there 
shall  thy  hand  lead  me,  and  thy  right  hand  shall 
hold  me.  If  I  say.  Surely  the  darkness  shall 
overwhelm  me ;  and  the  light  about  me  shall  be 
night;  even  the  darkness  hideth  not  from  thee, 
but  the  night  shineth  as  the  day:  the  darkness 
and  the  light  are  both  alike  to  thee.’^ 

You  will  find  the  second  text  in  Jer.  23:23,  24: 

“Am  I  a  God  at  hand,  saith  Jehovah,  and  not 
a  God  afar  off?  Can  any  hide  himself  in  secret 
places  so  that  I  shall  not  see  him?  saith  Je¬ 
hovah.  Do  not  I  fill  heaven  and  earth?  saith 
Jehovah.’^ 

You  will  find  the  third  text  in  Acts  17:  24-28: 

“The  God  that  made  the  world  and  all  things 
therein.  He,  being  Lord  of  heaven  and  earth, 
dwelleth  not  in  temples  made  with  hands; 
neither  is  He  served  by  men’s  hands,  as  though 
He  needed  anything,  seeing  He  Himself  giveth 
to  all  life,  and  breath,  and  all  things:  and  He 
made  of  one  every  nation  of  men  to  dwell  on 
all  the  face  of  the  earth,  having  determined 
their  appointed  seasons,  and  the  bounds  of  their 
habitation;  that  they  should  seek  God,  if  haply 
they  might  feel  after  Him,  and  find  Him, 
though  He  is  not  far  from  each  one  of  us:  for 


GOD  IS  EVERYWHERE 


79 

in  Him  we  live,  and  move,  and  have  our 
being.” 

It  would  be  difficult  to  find  outside  of  the  Bible  in 
all  the  literature  of  all  nations,  ancient  or  modern, 
anything  comparable  in  profundity,  beauty  and  sublim¬ 
ity  of  thought  and  expression  with  these  utterances  of 
Paul,  Jeremiah,  and  David,  all  written  so  many  cen¬ 
turies  ago,  the  latest  of  them  written  over  eighteen 
hundred  years  ago,  and  one  of  them  written  twenty- 
five  hundred  and  twenty  or  so  years  ago,  and  one  over 
twenty-nine  hundred  years  ago.  How  did  the  Apostle 
and  the  Prophet  and  the  Psalmist  attain  to  such  lofty 
conceptions  of  God  so  many,  many  centuries  before 
modern  philosophy  was  even  dreamed  of?  There  is 
but  one  rational  answer  to  that  question,  and  that  is 
the  answer  of  the  Bible  itself,  that  is,  these  “men  spake 
from  God,  being  moved  (more  literally,  “being  borne 
along”)  by  the  Holy  Spirit.”  They  were  “inspired 
of  God”  and  this  inspiration  extended  not  only  to  their 
“concept”  (or,  thought)  but  to  the  very  words  in 
which  they  voiced  their  “concept”  (or,  thought)  (II 
Tim.  3:16;  I  Cor.  2:  13). 

/.  God  Is  Everywhere 

The  first  thing  that  we  see  plainly  and  unmistakably 
taught  by  all  these  “God-breathed”  (II  Tim.  3:16 
Greek)  passages  is  that,  God  is  everywhere.  There  is 
no  place  that  we  can  go  in  Heaven  or  in  Hades  where 
God  is  not:  “If  we  ascend  up  into  heaven”  God  is 
there;  “if  we  descend  into  Sheol  (or  Hades),”  “the 
heart  of  the  earth”  (Matt.  12:40),  the  abode  of  the 


8o 


THE  GOD  OF  THE  BIBLE 


spirits  of  the  departed  up  to  the  time  of  the  resurrec¬ 
tion  and  ascension  of  our  Lord,  God  is  there.  Go 
East  or  West,  North  or  South,  to  the  uttermost  part 
of  land  or  sea,  God  is  there  with  us,  His  own  hand 
leads  us,  and  His  right  hand  holds  and  protects  us. 
When  I  was  born  sixty-six  years  ago  on  the  Atlantic 
coast  God  was  there  by  my  cradle ;  and  now  that  I  live 
more  than  three  thousand  miles  away  on  the  Pacific 
coast,  He  is  with  me  in  the  lecture  room  or  in  my 
study  every  day,  and  watches  by  my  bed  during  the 
hours  of  the  night.  He  stands  beside  me  unseen,  but 
really  personally  present  on  this  platform  as  I  speak  to 
you  now.  It  is  wonderful  that  as  I  speak  to  you  here 
this  morning  my  voice  is  carried  by  the  Radio  hun¬ 
dreds  of  miles  away  and  people  are  listening  to  me 
there,  but  that  is  not  so  wonderful  as  that  God  is  here 
and  God  is  there  beside  them  just  as  He  is  here  be¬ 
side  me.  When  I  was  on  the  other  side  of  the  earth, 
in  the  heart  of  Hunan  in  China  last  summer,  and  there 
seemed  to  be  peril  of  robbery  and  violence  from  the 
bandits  and  disorganized  soldiers,  with  whom  the 
country  was  swarming,  God  was  personally  right  be¬ 
side  me  there,  and  He  was  as  personally  beside  you 
here  as  you  listened  to  the  voice  of  Dr.  Courtland 
Myers  or  Dr.  Frank  Norris  or  Dr.  A.  C.  Dixon.  I 
have  been  from  oE  the  shores  of  Labrador  on  the 
North  to  Invercargill  and  Bluffs,  the  nearest  to  the 
South  pole  of  inhabited  towns,  on  the  South,  and  God 
was  not  only  with  me  while  I  was  there,  but  He  is 
there  and  everywhere  all  the  time. 

Jeremiah  tells  us  that  God  is  always  right  hand'' 
wherever  we  may  be,  but  that  He  is  at  the  same  time 


GOD  IS  EVERYWHERE 


8i 


'^afar  ojf”  in  the  remotest  spot  not  only  in  all  the 
earth  but  in  all  the  universe,  even  in  those  stars  so 
far  away  that  the  light,  travelling  from  them  to  us 
with  the  incredible  and  inconceivable  rapidity  with 
which  light  travels,  takes  six  thousand  years  to  get  tO' 
us,  so  that  the  light  you  will  see  in  those  stars  to-night 
will  be  not  the  light  with  which  they  shine  to-day  but 
the  light  that  started  away  from  them  six  thousand 
years  ago.  There  is  not  one  smallest  spot  in  all  the 
universe  where  God  is  not.  There  is  no  spot  in  all 
the  universe  where  a  man  can  hide  himself  from  God. 
He  fills  the  heaven  and  He  fills  the  earth;  so  “Jehovah 
saith’’  (Jer.  23:24),  and  Jehovah  always  speaks  the 
truth  (Tit.  1:2). 

Do  you  ask  me  how  that  can  be?  I  confess  I  do 
not  know.  But  neither  do  I  know  how  the  air  for 
five  hundred  miles  around  Los  Angeles  in  every  direc¬ 
tion  is  filled  at  this  moment  with  my  voice  and  my 
words,  and  at  the  same  time  is  full  of  the  jazz  music 
from  Mr.  Anthony’s  broadcasting  station  and  full  of 
other  voices  as  well,  all  unheard  until  we  put  up  our 
radio  receiver  and  then  tune  it  to  one  broadcasting 
station  instrument  or  another  and  then  hear  one  or 
the  other  just  as  plainly  as  the  man  sitting  down  there 
in  the  front  row  of  chairs  hears  me  at  this  moment. 
If  my  finite  and  feeble  voice  is  everywhere  for  five 
hundred  miles  around  at  this  moment,  unheard  it  may 
be,  but  perfectly  hearable  at  any  moment,  and  it  is,  is 
it  hard  to  believe  that  an  Infinite  God  can  be  present 
at  any  moment  and  every  moment  everywhere  in  the 
universe  He  Himself  created?  It  is  not  hard  at  all 
for  me  to  believe  it,  but  the  Radio  and  its  wonders  have 


82 


THE  GOD  OF  THE  BIBLE 


helped  me  to  believe  it.  But  remember  the  Psalmist 
wrote  about  it  twenty-nine  hundred  years  before 
the  Radio  was  dreamed  of.  Thus  does  the  most 
modern  real  '^science”  confirm  the  truth  and  inspira¬ 
tion  of  very  ancient  Scripture.  And  yet  men  who 
call  themselves  “scientists”  and  “philosophers,”  deny 
the  Inspiration  of  those  “holy  men  of  old,”  and  fancy 
themselves  to  be  the  only  real  “scientists”  and 
“philosophers”  that  there  are  in  the  whole  world,  be¬ 
cause  their  minds  have  been  bedeviled  by  an  extreme 
doctrine  of  Devilution  that  they  term  “Evolution.”  It 
would  be  most  fitting  to  change  the  first  o  in  the  word 
into  an  i  and  call  it  Evilniion. 

II.  Some  Inferences  from  the  Great  Truth  That  God 
Is  Everywhere. 

Before  we  go  any  further  let  us  consider  some  help¬ 
ful,  practical  inferences  from  the  great  truth  revealed 
in  the  Bible  (and  never  dreamed  of  by  man  until  the 
Bible  did  reveal  it),  the  truth  that  God  is  everywhere. 

I.  The  first  inference  from  the  great  truth  that  God 
is  everywhere  is  that  God  is  not  confined  to  temples 
or  church  buildings  or  buildings  of  any  kind,  but  can 
be  found  and  worshiped  anywhere  and  everywhere 
beneath  the  shining  sun  by  day  or  the  glittering  stars 
by  night.  The  whole  universe  is  a  holy  temple  of 
God ;  and  we  can  enjoy  His  fellowship  on  some  moun¬ 
tain  peak,  as  I  have  done,  or  down  in  a  mine  one  thou¬ 
sand  feet  beneath  the  earth  and  beneath  the  level  of 
the  sea,  as  I  have  also  done.  I  believe  in  setting 


GOD  IS  EVERYWHERE  83 

buildings  apart  for  the  service  and  worship  of  God, 
and  I  believe  that  it  is  the  solemn  duty  of  men  and 
women  to  attend  services  there  and  take  their  chil¬ 
dren  there,  if  they  can;  and  I  believe  the  man  or 
woman  who  does  not  go  to  the  house  set  apart  for 
the  worship  of  God  every  Lord’s  Day,  when  they  are 
able,  and  take  all  their  children  with  them,  if  they  can, 
is  not  a  good  citizen.  Nevertheless,  I  meet  God  out 
on  the  bosom  of  the  vasty  deep,  and  upon  the  moun¬ 
tain  peak  alone,  on  Sunday  and  on  other  days,  just  as 
truly  as  I  meet  him  here  in  this  beautiful  building  set 
apart  by  loving  hands  and  grateful  hearts  for  His 
worship  and  His  glory.  God  is  everywhere  and  the 
whole  universe  is  His  Temple.  That  thought  is  not 
original  with  me,  nor  is  it  original  with  the  modern 
poets;  Paul  declared  it  nearly  two  thousand  years 
ago.  Listen  again  to  what  he  said  to  that  gathering 
of  Stoic  and  Epicurean  philosophers  on  the  Areopagus 
in  Athens  in  that  olden  time.  We  find  it  in  Acts  17: 
24-28 : 

‘‘The  God  that  made  the  world  and  all  things 
therein,  He,  being  Lord  of  heaven  and  earth, 
dwelleth  not  in  temples  made  with  hands ; 
neither  is  He  served  by  men’s  hands,  as  though 
He  needed  anything,  seeing  He  Himself  giveth 
to  all  life,  and  breath,  and  all  things;  and  He 
made  of  one  every  nation  of  men  to  dwell  on 
all  the  face  of  the  earth,  having  determined 
their  appointed  seasons,  and  the  bounds  of 
their  habitation;  that  they  should  seek  God,  if 
haply  they  might  feel  after  Him,  and  find 


84 


THE  GOD  OF  THE  BIBLE 


Him,  though  He  is  not  far  from  each  one  of 
us:  for  in  Him  we  live,  and  move,  and  have 
our  being/^ 

Where  did  poor  old  Paul,  whom  some  of  our  “very 
learned”  and  “very  brilliant”  and  still  more  self-suf¬ 
ficient  modern  theological  professors  and  preachers  are 
trying  so  hard  to  criticize  and  discredit,  learn  it?  I 
will  tell  you  where  he  learned  it.  He  learned  it  direct 
“from  God”  (H  Pet.  i  :2i).  The  man  who,  in  face 
of  the  clear  facts  in  The  case,  doubts  it  is  not  in  any 
proper  usage  of  the  word  “rational,”  as  he  dreams  he 
is  and  boasts  that  he  is;  he  is  utterly  irrational,  a  de¬ 
termined,  stubborn,  willful  blockhead.  That  is  plain 
language,  but  it  is  also  plain  sense  and  undeniable  fact. 

But  let  us  go  back  further  still  than  Paul,  more  than 
seven  hundred  years  before  Paul,  to  Isaiah.  Isaiah  57 : 
15-22.  Listen  carefully  as  I  read: 

“For  thus  saith  the  high  and  lofty  One  that 
inhabiteth  eternity,  whose  name  is  Holy;  I 
dwell  in  the  high  and  holy  place,  with  him  also 
that  is  of  a  contrite  and  humble  spirit,  to  re¬ 
vive  the  spirit  of  the  humble,  and  to  revive  the 
heart  of  the  contrite.  For  I  will  not  contend 
forever,  neither  will  I  be  always  wroth :  for 
the  spirit  would  fail  before  me,  and  the  souls 
that  I  have  made.  For  the  iniquity  of  his  covet¬ 
ousness  was  I  wroth,  and  smote  him :  I  hid  my 
face  and  was  wroth,  and  he  went  on  back¬ 
sliding  in  the  way  of  his  heart.  I  have  seen 
his  ways,  and  will  heal  him:  I  will  lead  him 
also,  and  restore  comforts  unto  him  and  to  his 
mourners.  I  create  the  fruit  of  the  lips; 


GOD  IS  EVERYWHERE 


85 

Peace,  peace  to  him  that  is  far  off,  and  to  him 
that  is  near,  saith  Jehovah;  and  I  will  heal  him. 
But  the  wicked  are  like  the  troubled  sea;  for 
it  cannot  rest  and  its  waters  cast  up  mire  and 
dirt.  There  is  no  peace,  saith  my  God,  to  the 
wicked.” 

Where  did  old  Isaiah  learn  it,  living  so  long,  long 
ago,  twenty-five  hundred  years  or  more  before  Chicago 
University  or  Union  Theological  Seminary,  New 
York,  were  ever  dreamed  of?  There  is  but  one  answer 
that  even  approaches  reasonableness,  that  answer  is. 
He  was  really  inspired,  undoubtedly  inspired,  he  was 
''inspired  of  God,”  his  words  were  "God-breathed” 
(II  Tim.  3:  16,  Greek).  And  yet  these  learned  gentle¬ 
men,  these  exponents  of  '‘the  consensus  of  modern 
scholarship,”  blandly  tell  us  that  there  is  no  such  thing 
as  supernatural  inspiration  and  that  Isaiah  57  was  not 
written  by  Isaiah  anyhow!  Well,  then  by  whom  was 
it  written?  “Why  .  .  .  why  .  .  .  why  ...  by  Mr. 
Deutero-Isaiah,  ‘the  Great  Unknown.’  ”  Ah !  it  was 
not  written  by  “the  Great  Unknown”  but  by  one  who 
was  well  known — to  God,  so  well  known  to  God  that 
God  chose  to  speak  through  him,  written  by  one  who 
will  be  well  known  also  when  these  shallow  and  self- 
sufficient,  “Higher  Critics,”  “Modernists”  and  “New 
Theology”  men  are  forgotten  forever,  written  by 
“Isaiah,  the  son  of  Amoz”  (Isa.  1:1),  to  whom  God 
visibly  appeared  and  whom  He  chose  to  be  His  mouth¬ 
piece  not  only  to  the  Jews  of  his  own  day,  but  to  all 
nations  for  all  coming  centuries  and  to  us  to-day 
among  the  rest  (Isa.  6:  1-8). 

2.  The  second  inference  from  the  great  truth  that 


86 


THE  GOD  OF  THE  BIBLE 


God  is  everywhere  is  that  God  can  always  help  and 
deliver  those  who  trust  Him.  As  there  is  no  place 
where  God  is  not,  so  there  is  no  place  where  God  can¬ 
not  come  to  the  help  and  deliverance  of  his  people.  I 
may  live  here  in  this  sober  and  orderly  city  of  Los 
Angeles  where  law  is  so  perfectly  enforced,  or  I  may 
be  in  continually  war-ridden  China,  or  in  the  heart  of 
Africa,  what  difference  does  it  make?  God  is  there  as 
well  as  here.  I  watched  a  boat  last  summer  with 
armed  men  in  it  who  looked  like  bandits,  of  whom  the 
surrounding  country  was  thought  to  be  full,  as  it 
drew  near  our  unarmed  boat,  way  up  on  the  Siang 
River  in  Hunan,  just  after  sunset.  It  looked  bad. 
Only  two  or  three  days  before,  I  had  seen  just  such 
looking  men  fire  upon  and  capture  a  Chinese  junk. 
It  certainly  did  look  scary,  and  one  who  knew  China 
far  better  than  I  whispered  to  me,  “It  looks  like  a 
holdup.”  But  my  heart  was  quiet.  God  was  there, 
and  I  was  silently  talking  to  Him  while  I  watched  the 
boat  approach.  Oh!  I  rejoice  that  I  know  the  God  of 
the  Bible  and  not  the  god  of  “Modern  Religious 
Liberalism,”  and  that  my  God  too  is  everywhere,  and 
that  He  is  not  only  everywhere  but  that  He  is  at  the 
same  time  a  real  God,  a  Personal  God,  an  Almighty 
and  infinitely  loving  Father,  and  not  the  mere  cold, 
unreal,  philosophical,  impersonal,  dead,  “Absolute.” 

3.  The  third  inference  from  the  great  Bible  truth 
that  God  is  everywhere  is,  you  cannot  hide  anything 
you  do  or  think  or  feel  from  God.  The  policy  of  con¬ 
cealment  governs  the  actions  of  all  evil  doers.  We 
witness  it  to-day  in  politics,  in  international  affairs, 
in  the  mal-administration  of  justice,  in  business,  in  the 


GOD  IS  EVERYWHERE  87 

home,  everywhere.  The  deputy  sheriff  .takes  a  bribe 
that  he  thinks  no  one  sees  and  the  prisoner  does  not 
go  to  San  Quentin  but  escapes  to  the  woods;  the  po¬ 
liceman  takes  a  bribe  on  the  sly  and  the  offender  is  not 
arrested;  murders  are  committed  and  clews  that  lead 
nowhere  are  paraded  in  the  papers  as  being  followed 
up,  but  clews  that  would  lead  to  the  guilty  party  are 
ignored.  Nobody  knows.  Don’t  they?  God  is  every¬ 
where.  He  saw  the  murder  and  knows  the  guilty 
party,  even  if  the  officers  of  the  law  do  not  or  do  not 
want  to.  The  adulterer  goes  on  his  damnable  way 
under  cover  of  the  night  and  his  wife  and  children  do 
not  know,  they  fancy  that  he  is  the  best  of  fathers  and 
the  prince  of  husbands.  Nobody  knows.  Don’t 
they?  God  knows.  Yes,  and  remembers  too,  until 
just  the  right  time  comes  and  then  He  will  strike. 
Yes,  God  is  everywhere,  you  cannot  hide  anything 
from  Him.  As  the  Psalmist  puts  it : 

“Whither  shall  I  go  from  thy  Spirit? 

Or  whither  shall  I  flee  from  thy  presence? 

If  I  ascend  up  into  heaven,  thou  are  there: 

If  I  make  my  bed  in  Sheol,  behold,  thou  art 
there. 

If  I  take  the  wings  of  the  morning, 

A'nd  dwell  in  the  uttermost  parts  of  the  sea; 

Even  there  thy  hand  shall  lead  me. 

And  thy  right  hand  shall  hold  me. 

If  I  say.  Surely  the  darkness  shall  overwhelm 
me; 

And  the  light  about  me  shall  be  night. 

Even  the  darkness  hideth  not  from  thee; 

But  the  night  shineth  as  the  day: 


88 


THE  GOD  OF  THE  BIBLE 


The  darkness  and  the  light  are  both  alike  to 
thee.’’ 

Not  one  of  you  has  ever  committed  a  single  sin 
that  the  Holy  God  of  the  Bible,  Who  is  everywhere, 
does  not  know.  So  you  must  pay  the  penalty  of  every 
sin  of  act  or  word  or  thought  that  you  commit.  You 
cannot  escape.  We  may  escape  human  avengers  and 
human  courts;  we  cannot  escape  God.  Wearing  the 
long  white  robes  and  hoods  of  the  Ku  Klux  Klan  when 
we  go  out  to  do  our  deviltry  and  using  all  sorts  of 
foolish  names  of  hobgoblins  and  what  not,  will  not 
hide  us  from  God.  I  am  mighty  glad  of  it.  God  is  every¬ 
where,  unseen  by  all  but  seeing  all.  So  no  sin  no 
matter  how  secret  will  ever  go  unpunished;  if  not 
here,  then  over  yonder.  With  an  everywhere  present 
God  every  sin  that  man  commits  is  a  huge  mistake. 

4.  The  fourth  inference,  and  a  glorious  one  it  is, 
from  the  great  Bible  truth  that  God  is  everywhere  is 
that.  It  does  not  matter  one  particle  if  every  earthly 
friend  deserts  us  and  every  man  on  earth  is  against  us, 
if  we  are  true  to  God  and  conscience,  God  is  not  only 
near  us  but  He  will  also  protect  us,  and  “if  God  be 
for  us  who  can  be  against  us?”  (Rom.  8:31).  Some 
thirty  years  ago,  I  incurred  the  deep  enmity  of  some 
powerful  and  unscrupulous  men.  A  man  came  to  me 
with  a  warning.  He  named  the  men  and  spoke  of 
their  power  and  their  unscrupulousness  and  how  they 
had  it  in  for  me.  I  was  not  in  the  least  disturbed.  I 
knew  God  was  everywhere  and  what  availed  the  plots 
and  conspiracies  of  men?  And  here  I  am  still. 


GOD  IS  EVERYWHERE 


89 


III,  Is  God  Anywhere  in  Particular? 

We  have  seen  that  God  is  everywhere,  and  now 
arises  another  question,  Is  God  Anywhere  in  Particu¬ 
lar?  Is  God  in  certain  places  in  a  sense  and  in  a  full¬ 
ness  that  He  is  not  in  other  places?  The  Bible  an¬ 
swers  that  question  also  with  unmistakable  clearness. 

1.  Turn  in  your  Bibles  to  Jno.  14:28.  Jesus  is 
speaking,  listen  to  His  words : 

‘‘Ye  heard  how  I  said  to  you,  I  go  away, 
and  I  come  unto  you.  If  ye  loved  me,  ye 
would  have  rejoiced,  because  I  go  unto  the 
Father:  for  the  Father  is  greater  than  I.” 

Here  our  Lord  distinctly  says  that  on  leaving  His 
disciples  and  going  up  into  heaven  He  was  going  unto 
the  Father;  so  it  is  clear  that  God  the  Father  is  in 
heaven  in  a  sense  and  in  a  fullness  in  which  He  is  not 
on  earth. 

2.  Turn  now  to  the  twentieth  chapter  of  the  same 
book,  Jno.  20:  17 : 

“Jesus  saith  to  her.  Touch  me  not;  for  I  am 
not  yet  ascended  unto  the  Father:  but  go  unto 
my  brethren,  and  say  to  them,  /  ascend  unto 
my  Father  and  your  Father,  and  my  God  and 
your  God.’’ 

Here  Jesus  distinctly  teaches  us  that  the  Father  is 
in  heaven  in  a  sense  in  which  He  is  not  here  on  earth, 
that,  in  leaving  the  earth  and  ascending  into  Heaven, 
He  was  ascending  to  God  the  Father,  to  a  place  where 
God  the  Father  was  in  a  sense  that  He  was  not  here. 

,  3.  Turn  now  to  Eph.  i :  20.  Paul  is  here  speak- 


THE  GOD  OF  THE  BIBLE 


90 

ing  about  God  and  ''the  exceeding  greatness  of  his 
power  to  us-ward.”  He  says: 

"Which  He  wrought  in  Christ,  when  He 
raised  Him  from  the  dead,  and  made  Him  to 
sit  at  His  right  hand  in  the  heavenly  places.” 

The  meaning  of  these  words  is  plain.  They  teach 
us  that  God  has  a  local  habitation  and  that  the  Lord 
Jesus  was  exalted  to  a  place  at  His  right  hand. 

4.  Turn  now  to  Rev.  21:2,  3,  10,  22,  23 : 

"And  I  saw  the  Holy  City,  new  Jerusalem, 
coming  down  out  of  heaven  from  God,  made 
ready  as  a  bride  adorned  for  her  husband. 
(This  clearly  tells  us  that  God  is  in  heaven  and 
that  the  new  Jerusalem  was  coming  down  out 
of  heaven  from  him.)  And  I  heard  a  great 
voice  out  of  the  throne  saying,  Behold,  the 
tabernacle  of  God  is  with  men,  and  He  shall 
dwell  with  them,  and  they  shall  be  His  peoples, 
and  God  Himself  shall  be  with  them,  and  be 
their  God.  ...  (10)  And  he  carried  me 
away  in  the  Spirit  to  a  mountain  great  and 
high,  and  shewed  me  the  holy  city  Jerusalem, 
coming  down  out  of  heaven  from  God.  .  .  . 
(22,  23.)  And  I  saw  no  temple  therein:  for 
the  Lord  God  the  Almighty,  and  the  Lamb, 
are  the  temple  thereof.  And  the  city  hath  no 
need  of  the  sun,  neither  of  the  moon  to  shine 
upon  it:  for  the  glory  of  God  did  lighten  it, 
and  the  lamp  thereof  is  the  Lamb.” 

5.  Turn  once  more,  this  time  to  Rev.  22:1,  3,  4: 

"And  he  shewed  me  a  river  of  water  of  life, 


GOD  IS  EVERYWHERE 


91 


bright  as  crystal,  coming  out  of  the  throne  of 
God  and  of  the  Lamb.  ...  (3,  4.)  And 
there  shall  be  no  night  any  more :  and  the 
throne  of  God  and  of  the  Lamb  shall  he  therein: 
and  His  servants  shall  serve  him:  and  they 
shall  see  his  face;  and  his  name  shall  be  on 
their  foreheads.” 

All  these  passages  make  it  as  clear  as  day  that, 
while  God  is  everywhere  as  we  have  already  seen, 
that  at  the  same  time  it  is  true  that  God  is  in  one  par¬ 
ticular  place,  in  Heaven,  in  a  way  in  which  He  is  not 
in  any  other  place.  We  find  this  same  truth  way  back 
in  the  Old  Testament  in  Isaiah  66:1: 

“Thus  saith  Jehovah,  Heaven  is  my  throne, 
and  the  earth  is  my  footstool:  what  manner  of 
house  will  ye  build  unto  me  ?  What  place  shall 
be  my  rest?” 

Here  heaven  is  said  to  be  the  throne  of  God,  the 
place  where  He  is  peculiarly  and  fully  present,  and  it 
is  also  said  that  “the  earth  is  (His)  footstool.”  Clearly 
then,  there  is  a  fullness  and  manifestation  of  God’s 
presence  in  some  place  that  there  is  not  in  other  places. 
^Heaven  is  the  place  where  at  the  present  time  the 
presence  and  glory  of  God  are  especially  and  visibly 
manifested. 

This  great  truth  about  God  comes  out  in  a  very 
striking  and  impressive  way  at  the  Baptism  of  our 
Lord  Jesus.  Let  me  read  you  Mark’s  account,  Mark 
I ;  9-1 1 : 

“And  it  came  to  pass  in  those  days,  that 
Jesus  came  from  Nazareth  of  Galilee,  and  was 
baptised  of  John  in  the  Jordan.  And  straight- 


92 


THE  GOD  OF  THE  BIBLE 


way  coming  up  out  of  the  water,  he  saw  the 
heavens  rent  asunder,  and  the  Spirit  as  a  dove 
descending  upon  him :  and  a  voice  came  out  of 
the  heavens,  Thou  art  my  beloved  Son,  in  thee 
I  am  well  pleased/^ 

Here  we  are  distinctly  told  that  the  voice  of  God 
speaking  to  His  beloved  Son  came  ‘‘out  of  the 
heavens/'  In  the  marvelous  prayer  which  our  Lord 
taught  us  He  tells  us  to  address  God  as  “Our  Father 
who  art  in  heaven"  (more  literally  “in  the  heavens’’) 
(Matt.  6:9).  It  is  clear  then  that  though  God  is 
everywhere  He  must  be  “in  the  heavens”  in  a  sense 
that  He  is  not  here. 

God  the  Father  is  especially  manifested  in  heaven 
at  the  present  time;  God  the  Son,  during  the  days  of 
our  Lord’s  life  and  ministry  here  on  earth,  was  es¬ 
pecially  manifested  on  earth  (though  He  Himself  tells 
us  in  Jno.  3:13  that  even  while  on  earth  He  was  in 
heaven.  His  words  are:  “And  no  one  hath  ascended 
into  heaven,  but  He  that  descended  out  of  heaven, 
even  the  Son  of  man,  who  is  in  heaven.”) ;  God  the 
Son  is  now  in  heaven,  having  ascended  there  from 
Mt.  Olivet  forty  days  after  His  resurrection  from  the 
dead  (see  Acts  1:3-11;  Cf.  Acts  7:56;  Eph.  i :  20, 
and  many  other  passages) ;  God  the  Holy  Spirit  is 
manifested  everywhere:  (i)  In  nature  (Gen.  1:2; 
Ps.  104:30);  (2)  In  all  believers  (Jno.  14:16,  17; 
Rom.  8:9);  (3)  With  unbelievers  (Jno.  16:7-11). 

Through  the  Spirit,  the  Father  and  the  Son  dwell 
to-day  in  the  believer  in  Jesus  Christ  (Jno.  14:  17,  19, 
20,  23),  dwell  personally  in  him,  and  our  Lord  Jesus 
is  with  us  (if  we  go  out  to  do  His  work)  until  the 


GOD  IS  EVERYWHERE 


93 


end  of  this  present  dispensation.  He  says  in  Matt. 
28:  18-20,  “All  authority  hath  been  given  unto  me  in 
heaven  and  on  earth.  Go  ye  therefore,  and  make  dis¬ 
ciples  of  all  the  nations,  baptizing  them  into  the  name 
of  the  Father  and  of  the  Son  and  of  the  Holy  Spirit: 
teaching  them  to  observe  all  things  whatsoever  I  com¬ 
manded  you :  and  lo,  /  am  with  you  always,  even  unto 
the  consummation  of  the  age”  But  God  the  Father 
is  peculiarly  and  personally  present  “in  Heaven”  to¬ 
day  in  a  sense  that  He  is  not  with  us  here.  God  the 
Son  in  a  glorified  human  form  is  at  present  in  heaven, 
waiting  until  that  glad  day  when  He  shall  come  back 
to  this  earth  to  receive  us  and  take  us  up  with  Him 
into  glory. 

I  meet  God  face  to  face  now.  Though  I  do  not  see 
Him,  yet  I  have  real,  intimate,  personal  communion 
with  Him  now  ;  but  when  my  earthly  pilgrimage  and 
warfare  are  over,  I  shall  meet  Him  and  see  Him  in 
heaven  in  a  sense  and  in  a  fullness  that  I  do  not  meet 
Him  and  see  Him  now.  And  then,  in  that  wonderful 
day,  as  David  put  it  so  many  centuries  ago,  “I  shall 
be  satisfied  when  I  awake,  with  beholding  Thy  form 
(Ps.  17:  15). 


CHAPTER  V 


GOD  IS  THE  ETERNAL  I  AM,  HE  ALWAYS  WAS,  ALWAYS 
IS,  AND  ALWAYS  SHALL  BE,  AND  HE  IS  ALWAYS 
THE  SAME 

Our  general  subject  is.  The  God  of  the  Bible;  the 
God  of  the  Bible  as  distinguished  from  the  god 
of  “Theosophy”  and  the  god  of  “Christian  Sci¬ 
ence”  and  the  god  of  “Spiritualism”  and  the  god 
of  “New  Thought”  and  the  God  of  “Unitarianism” 
and  the  God  of  “the  New  Theology”  and  the  god  of 
“Modern  Philosophy,”  and  the  god  of  “Modernism” 
in  general.  In  our  earlier  studies  of  this  general 
subject.  The  God  of  the  Bible,  we  have  already  seen: 
first,  that  The  God  of  the  Bible  is  a  Personal  God; 
second,  that  The  God  of  the  Bible  is  essentially  Spirit, 
invisible,  and  incorporeal,  but  that  He  has  manifested 
Himself  to  men  in  a  visible  form,  and  that  He  has  a 
form  now  in  which  He  manifests  Himself  in  the 
celestial  world;  third,  that  according  to  the  teaching 
of  the  Bible  there  is  but  one  God,  but  that  in  this  one 
God  there  are  Three  Persons,  God  the  Father,  God 
the  Son  (Jesus  Christ)  and  God  the  Holy  Spirit;  and 
fourth,  we  have  seen  that  God  is  everywhere,  but  that 
He  manifests  Himself  in  the  fullness  of  His  Presence 
and  glory  in  Heaven  in  a  way  that  He  does  not  mani¬ 
fest  Himself  here  on  earth. 

The  special  subject  of  this  chapter  is.  The  God 

94 


GOD  IS  THE  ETERNAL  I  AM 


95 

of  the  Bible:  God  is  the  Eternal  I  Am.  He  Always 
was,  Always  is  and  Always  Shall  be.  And  he  is  Always 
the  Same.  I  have  five  texts.  You  will  find  the  first 
text  in  Ex.  3  :  13-15  : 

“And  Moses  said  unto  God,  Behold,  when 
I  come  unto  the  children  of  Israel,  and  shall 
say  unto  them.  The  God  of  your  fathers  has 
sent  me  unto  you;  and  they  shall  say  to  me, 
What  is  his  name  ?  what  shall  I  say  unto  them  ? 
And  God  said  unto  Moses,  I  am  That  I  Am: 
and  He  said.  Thus  shalt  thou  say  unto  the 
children  of  Israel,  I  am  hath  sent  me  unto  you. 
And  God  said  moreover  unto  Moses,  Thus  shalt 
thou  say  unto  the  children  of  Israel,  Jehovah, 
the  God  of  your  fathers,  the  God  of  Abraham, 
the  God  of  Isaac,  and  the  God  of  Jacob,  hath 
sent  me  unto  you:  this  (i.  e.,  Jehovah)  is  my 
name  forever,  and  this  (i.  e.,  the  name  Jehovah) 
is  my  memorial  unto  all  generations.’’ 

You  will  find  the  second  text  in  Gen.  21:33: 

“And  Abraham  planted  a  tamarisk  tree  in 
Beersheba,  and  called  there  on  the  name  of 
Jehovah,  the  Everlasting  God.” 

You  will  find  the  third  text  in  Isa.  40:28: 

“Hast  thou  not  known  ?  hast  thou  not  heard  ? 
The  everlasting  God,  Jehovah,  the  Creator  of 
the  ends  of  the  earth,  fainteth  not,  neither  is 
weary;  there  is  no  searching  of  His  understand¬ 
ing.” 

You  will  find  the  fourth  text  in  Ps.  90:  1-4: 

“Lord,  thou  hast  been  our  dwelling-place  in 
all  generations.  Before  the  mountains  were 


96 


THE  GOD  OF  THE  BIBLE 


brought  forth,  or  ever  thou  hadst  formed  the 
earth  and  the  world,  even  from  everlasting  to 
everlasting,  thou  art  God,  Thou  turnest  man 
to  destruction;  and  sayest,  Return,  ye  children 
of  men.  For  a  thousand  years  in  thy  sight 
are  hut  as  yesterday  when  it  is  past,  and  as  a 
watch  in  the  night.’’ 

And  the  fifth  text  you  will  find  in  Ps.  102:24-27: 

'T  said,  O  my  God,  take  me  not  away  in 
the  midst  of  my  days :  thy  years  are  through¬ 
out  all  generations.  Of  old  didst  thou  lay 
„  the  foundation  of  the  earth:  and  the  heavens 
are  the  work  of  thy  hands.  They  shall  perish, 
but  thou  shalt  endure;  yea,  all  of  them  shall 
wax  old  like  a  garment ;  as  a  vesture  shalt  thou 
change  them,  and  they  shall  be  changed:  but 
thou  art  the  same,  and  thy  years  have  no  end.” 

All  these  passages  of  Scripture  are  from  the  Old 
Testament  and  two  of  the  five  are  from  the  first  two 
books  of  the  Bible.  These  passages  were  written  about 
thirty-three  hundred  and  seventy  years  ago,  and  one 
of  the  utterances  here  recorded  was  made  by  Abraham 
something  like  three  thousand  and  eight  hundred  years 
ago.  Yet  these  passages  present  to  us  a  conception  of 
God  of  the  profoundest  philosophical  wisdom  and  of 
the  loftiest  conceivable  sublimity,  unequaled  by  any¬ 
thing  even  in  this  day  of  advanced  thinking,  except 
in  so  far  as  men  have  derived  their  thoughts  of  God 
from  the  Bible.  How  did  Isaiah,  and  David,  and 
Moses,  and  Abraham,  living  in  such  a  far  away  past, 
many  centuries  before  even  the  earliest  ethnic  philoso¬ 
phers  had  worked  out  their  vague  and  indefinite  and 


GOD  IS  THE  ETERNAL  I  AM  97 

now  entirely  antiquated  conceptions  of  God,  attain  to 
such  a  lofty  view  of  God?  There  is  but  one  rational 
answer  to  such  a  question:  namely,  God  Himself  su- 
pernaturally  revealed  Himself  to  them  and  declared 
to  them  these  great  truths  about  Himself ;  and  the 
Bible  is,  even  in  its  most  ancient  parts,  beyond  an  hon¬ 
est  question  a  supernatural  Book,  a  Supernatural  Rev¬ 
elation,  and  the  Unique  and  Inerrant  Inspiration  of  the 
Bible  is  a  scientifically  proven  fact.  Modern  religious 
liberalists  and  “Biblical  critics”  have  made  long,  la¬ 
borious,  scholarly,  subtle,  and  determined  efforts  to 
prove  the  contrary,  and  to  make  us  believe  that  a 
Supernatural  Revelation  and  Inerrant  Inspiration  were 
impossibilities,  but  the  actual  facts  in  the  case,  which 
we  all  have  here  right  before  our  eyes  to-day,  demon¬ 
strate  the  utter  silliness  of  their  so-called  “science,” 
they  are  sciolists  and  not  scientists. 

I.  God  Is  the  Eternal  I  Am 

The  first  thing  that  these  sublime  utterances  of 
Isaiah,  David,  Moses,  and  Abraham  make  clear  is  that, 
God  is  the  Eternal  I  Am.  With  Him  there  is  neither 
past  nor  future,  it  is  all  one  Eternal  Present.  He  never 
began  to  be  and  He  will  never  cease  to  be.  GOD  AL¬ 
WAYS  IS.  Our  present  day  scientists  are  telling  us 
of  the  vast  antiquity  of  the  globe  on  which  we  live, 
which  we  call  the  Earth.  They  once  talked  of  the 
many  thousands  of  years  that  it  had  been  in  existence; 
but  now  they  talk  of  the  many  millions  and  hundreds 
of  millions  of  years  of  its  existence.  That  is  very 
largely  guesswork,  and  guesswork  of  the  most  baseless 


98  THE  GOD  OF  THE  BIBLE 

character;  but  they  have  so  constantly  iterated  and  re¬ 
iterated  their  guesses  that  they  have  now  with  them 
all  the  force  of  scientifically  proven  certainty.  With 
the  average  so-called  '‘scientist”  of  the  present  day,  the 
constant  repetition  of  a  hypothesis  or  of  a  wild  guess, 
or  even  of  a  lie  has  all  the  force  of  scientific  demon¬ 
stration.  Ask  him  how  he  knows  the  Evolutionary 
Hypothesis,  even  in  its  most  sweeping  and  daring  and 
utterly  unsubstantiated  forms,  to  be  true,  and  he  re¬ 
plies,  “Why,  all  scientists  are  agreed  about  it.”  Yes, 
but  why  are  they  agreed  about  it?  Upon  what  scien¬ 
tifically  ascertained  facts  and  unescapable  logical  in¬ 
ferences  from  those  facts  do  they  base  their  opinion? 
And  again  all  you  get  is  the  reply  that  “they  are  all 
agreed  about  it.”  This  form  of  argument  has  no 
weight  whatever  with  any  man  who  is  familiar  with 
the  history  of  scientific  and  philosophical  opinions  and 
who  therefore  knows  that  over  and  over  again  through 
the  many  centuries  of  human  thinking  all  the  philoso¬ 
phers  and  “all  the  scientists”  have  been  perfectly  agreed 
upon  what  we  all  now  know  to  be  error.  If  any  one 
is  well  informed  and  is  also  candid,  he  will  not  accept 
any  theory  simply  on  the  ground  of  a  statement  that 
“all  scientists  are  agreed  about  it.”  When  you  ask 
this  class  of  “scientists”  how  they  know  that  there 
was  not  only  a  cave  man  or  cave  men,  as  of  course 
we  all  know  there  have  been  and  still  are,  but  how 
they  know  that  the  whole  present  human  race  are 
descendants  of  primitive  cave  men  again  they  reply, 
“All  scientists  are  agreed  about  it.”  But  why  are 
they  agreed  about  it?  Is  there  any  scientific  or  his¬ 
torical  proof  that  the  races  living  upon  earth  to-day 


GOD  IS  THE  ETERNAL  I  AM 


99 


are  descended  from  a  primitive  cave  man,  a  man  part 
beast  and  part  man  ?  They  reply  again,  “All  scientists 
are  agreed  about  it.”  Yes,  but  why  are  they  agreed 
about  it?  Every  particle  of  real  evidence  about  the 
men  of  thousands  of  years  ago  is  that  they  were  men 
of  a  high  type  intellectually  and  that  they  had  wrought 
out  a  fine  and  well  developed  civilization.  But  sup¬ 
posing  the  scientists  are  right  in  this  matter  of  the 
vast  antiquity  of  the  earth,  suppose  that  this  earth 
is  millions  of  years  old,  and  there  is  nothing  in  the 
first  chapter  of  Genesis,  properly  understood,  and  liter¬ 
ally  interpreted,  to  prove  that  it  is  not;  for  the  careful 
and  thorough  student  of  the  first  chapter  of  Genesis 
knows  that  there  is  a  great  gap  of  no  one  knows  how 
many  centuries  or  chiliads  between  Gen.  i :  i  and  Gen. 
1 :  3,  I  say,  even  if  these  suppositions  that  this  earth 
.  is  hundreds  of  millions  or  billions  of  years  old,  are 
true,  even  in  that  case,  when  this  earth  began  to  exist 
these  hundreds  of  millions  or  billions  of  years  ago, 
when  the  stars  and  sun  and  moon  began  to  be,  God 
Already  WAS.  In  the  very  first  verse  in  the  Bible 
He  is  seen,  ‘'in  the  beginning,”  as  already  existing, 
and  as  “creating  the  heavens  and  the  earth.”  Go  back, 
back,  back,  back,  endlessly  and  eternally  back,  and 
God  always  is,  and  speaking  to  Moses  out  in  the  desert 
over  thirty-four  hundred  years  ago,  when  Moses  asked 
who  He  was,  Jehovah  replied,  “/  Am  that  I  Am,  and 
my  name  is  I  AM,  I  Am  the  Eternal  I  Am.” 

There  is  an  eternity  back  of  us  as  well  as  an  eternity 
ahead  of  us  and  the  God  of  the  Bible  is  as  Isaiah  says 
in  one  place,  Isa.  57:  15,  “the  high  and  lofty  One  that 
inhabiteth  eternity.”  Eternity  has  no  end  at  either 


lOO 


THE  GOD  OF  THE  BIBLE 


end,  ahead  of  us  or  hack  of  us,  and  God  is  through 
it  all,  God  has  no  beginning  and  no  ending. 

Of  course  it  is  impossible  for  the  finite  mind  to 
conceive  of  eternity,  especially  of  an  eternity  back  of 
us.  When  we  try  to  think  of  an  eternity  back  of  us 
the  question  inevitably  arises  with  every  really  thought¬ 
ful  person,  if  there  is  an  endless  eternity  back  of  us 
how  then  did  we  ever  get  to  the  present  moment? 
And,  of  course,  we  cannot  answer  it.  But  the  thought 
that  there  is  not  an  eternity  back  of  us  is  equally  in¬ 
conceivable  by  the  finite  mind;  for  if  you  say  that 
there  is  not  an  eternity  back  of  us,  the  question  inev¬ 
itably  arises,  If  there  is  not  an  eternity  back  of  us, 
go  back  to  the  starting  point,  however  many  millions 
or  billions  of  years  back  of  us  that  may  be,  what  was 
before  that?  And  again  no  answer  is  possible,  and 
you  are  landed  in  an  equally  unfathomable  and  im¬ 
penetrable  fog  of  impossibility  and  inconceivability. 
There  is  an  eternity  back  of  us,  there  must  be;  and 
the  utterly  inconceivable  is  at  the  same  time  the  cer¬ 
tainly  true.  And  God  throughout  all  the  eternity  back 
of  us  is  the  Eternal  I  Am,  and  He  is  the  Eternal  I  Am 
to-day,  and  in  the  Eternity  still  ahead  of  us  He  will 
always  be  the  Eternal  I  Am.  As  the  Psalmist  puts  it 
(and,  by  the  way,  in  this  instance  Moses  himself  is 
the  Psalmist),  ‘‘Even  from  everlasting  to  everlasting, 
thou  art  God.’’ 

We  saw  a  while  ago  how  the  New  Testament  critics 
and  Modernists  and  New  Theology  men  are  trying  to 
discredit  Paul,  and  thereby  are  in  reality  discrediting 
themselves.  The  Old  Testament  critics  have  turned 
their  heaviest  artillery  upon  Moses,  to  discredit  him 


GOD  IS  THE  ETERNAL  I  AM 


lOI 


even  if  they  cannot  discredit  any  one  else.  We  see 
from  these  passages  which  I  have  read  you,  how 
by  so  doing  they  also  are  discrediting  themselves.  The 
God  of  Moses,  who  wrote  about  1450  B.C.,  was  a 
far  greater  and  far  more  wonderful  Being  than  the 
God  of  Professor  Gerald  Birney  Smith,  ^'Professor  of 
Christian  Theology”  of  the  University  of  Chicago  in 
1922  A.D.,  or  than  the  god  of  any  of  the  “Modernist” 
“Professors  of  Theology.” 

The  very  name  “Jehovah,”  the  distinctive  name  of 
the  God  of  Abraham,  Isaac  and  Jacob,  the  God  of 
the  Old  Testament  and  the  God  of  our  Lord  and 
Saviour  Jesus  Christ  as  well,  also  sets  forth  this  great 
truth  of  the  eternity  of  God.  This  name  is  derived 
from  the  frequently  used  Hebrew  verb  meaning  “to 
be”  (in  the  first  person,  present,  indicative,  I  am), 
and  sets  forth  the  thought  that  God  is  Eternal  and 
Immutable,  The  Eternally  Existing  One,  One  “who 
will  never  he  other  than  He  is”  This  significance 
of  the  Name  Jehovah  comes  out  clearly  in  two  of  the 
texts  that  I  announced  in  opening,  Gen.  21:33; 
Isa.  40:28;  as  you  will  see  if  you  will  study  these 
texts  carefully,  which  we  will  not  now  take  time  to  do. 

No  words  of  human  comment  can  add  anything  to 
the  sublimity  of  this  Divinely  given  Bible  conception 
of  God.  The  wonderful  truth  of  the  Eternity  of  God, 
that  God  is  the  Eternal  /  Am,  is  not  one  so  much  to 
be  commented  upon  as  to  be  meditated  upon  by  each 
one  of  us  in  “the  secret  place”  alone,  until  our  souls 
are  filled  with  wonder  and  awe  and  adoration  and 
worship  and  unhesitating  and  absolute  faith.  In  view 
of  this  great  truth  about  God  we  see  new  significance 


102  THE  GOD  OF  THE  BIBLE 

in  the  words  of  our  Lord  Jesus  uttered  in  His  prayer 
the  night  before  His  crucifixion,  “And  this  is  life 
eternal,  that  they  should  know  thee  the  only  true  God, 
and  Him  whom  thou  didst  send,  even  Jesus  Christ’' 
(Jno.  17:3).  And  in  John’s  words  in  his  First 
Epistle,  written  undoubtedly  not  only  by  inspiration 
but  also  with  the  words  of  our  Lord  in  his  mind,  “We 
know  that  the  Son  of  God  is  come,  and  hath  given 
us  an  understanding,  that  we  know  him  that  is  true, 
and  we  are  in  him  that  is  true,  even  in  his  Son  Jesus 
Christ.  This  is  the  true  God,  and  eternal  life.  My 
little  children,  guard  yourselves  from  idols”  (I  Jno. 
5:20,  21). 

In  the  Bible  revelation  of  God  we  find  this  attribute 
of  Eternity  ascribed  not  only  to  the  Father  but  also 
to  the  Son,  Jesus  Christ,  as  well.  In  Phil.  2 : 6  and 
the  following  verses  we  are  told  that  the  Divine  Per¬ 
son  Who  emptied  Himself  of  His  Divine  form  and 
Divine  glory  and  took  upon  Him  “the  form  of  a 
servant”  and  “was  made  in  the  likeness  of  men”  and 
thus  became  incarnate  in  the  person  of  Jesus  of  Naza¬ 
reth,  and  then  became  “obedient  even  unto  death,  yea, 
the  death  of  the  cross,”  before  thus  becoming  incarnate, 
''existed  in  the  form  of  God.”  The  Greek  participle 
translated  “being”  in  the  Authorized  Version  and  “ex¬ 
isting”  in  the  Revised  Version  is  a  peculiar  and  deeply 
significant  word,  and  seems  to  indicate  “to  exist  origi¬ 
nally”  (see  margin  R.  V.),  and  in  any  case  the  verse 
points  to  the  eternal  pre-existence  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ.  The  same  thought  is  found  in  John  1:1,  14, 
where  we  are  told  that  the  Eternal  Word  Who  became 
flesh  in  the  person  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth  already 


GOD  IS  THE  ETERNAL  I  AM 


103 


^‘in  the  beginning.’^  The  exact  words  are:  “In 
the  beginning  was  the  Word,”  i.  e.,  in  the  very  begin¬ 
ning  of  all  created  things  He  already  was.  We  find 
the  same  thought  again  in  Heb.  i  :  6-12,  where  in 
speaking  of  Jesus  Christ,  the  Son  of  God,  the  writer 
says : 

“And  when  he  again  bringeth  in  the  firstborn 
into  the  world  he  saith,  And  let  all  the  angels 
of  God  worship  him.  And  of  the  angels  he 
saith.  Who  maketh  his  angels  winds,  And  his 
ministers  a  flame  of  fire:  but  of  the  Son  he 
saith,  Thy  throne,  O  God,  is  forever  and  ever; 
And  the  sceptre  of  uprightness  is  the  sceptre 
of  thy  kingdom.  Thou  hast  loved  righteous¬ 
ness,  and  hated  iniquity;  therefore  God,  thy 
God,  hath  anointed  thee  with  the  oil  of  glad¬ 
ness  above  thy  fellows.  And,  Thou,  Lord,  in 
the  beginning  didst  lay  the  foundation  of  the 
earth;  and  the  heavens  are  the  works  of  thy 
hands:  They  shall  perish;  but  thou  continuest: 
and  they  all  shall  wax  old  as  doth  a  garment; 
and  as  a  mantle  shalt  thou  roll  them  up,  as  a 
garment,  and  they  shall  be  changed:  but  thou 
art  the  same,  and  thy  years  shall  not  fail.” 

The  Eternity  of  the  third  person  of  the  Divine 
Trinity,  the  Holy  Spirit,  is  also  taught  in  the  Bible, 
e.  g.,  in  Heb.  9:  14  He  is  spoken  of  as  “The  Eternal 
Spirit.”  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Spirit  are  die  One 
Jehovah,  the  Eternal  I  Am.  They  existed  from  all 
eternity  and  will  exist  to  all  eternity. 

In  this  wondrous  truth  of  the  Eternity  of  the  Triune 
God  of  the  Bible,  we  get  the  answer  to  the  question 


104  the  god  of  the  BIBLE 

that  a  very  shallow  and  very  silly  class  of  agnostics 
and  atheists  ask  you  when  you  urge  that  the  marks 
of  intelligent  design  everywhere  in  the  whole  universe 
from  the  largest  star  to  the  minutest  animalculse  prove 
the  existence  of  an  intelligent  designer  and  creator  of 
the  material  universe.  Then  they  ask  “Who  made 
God  ?”  The  great  truth  we  are  now  studying  answers 
the  question,  He  was  never  made,  He  never  began  to 
be.  He  always  Was,  He  always  Is  and  He  always 
Shall  be. 


II ,  God  Always  the  Same, 

But  the  Bible  teaches  us  not  only  that  God  is  the 
Eternal  I  Am,  that  He  always  Is,  is  from  all  Eternity 
and  to  all  Eternity;  but  the  Bible  also  teaches  that, 
He  is  always  the  same.  In  James  i :  17  we  read: 

“Every  good  gift  and  every  perfect  gift  is 
from  above,  coming  down  from  the  Father 
of  lights,  with  whom  can  he  no  variation, 
neither  shadow  that  is  cast  by  turning.” 

The  figure  used  in  this  verse  is  taken  from  the 
variations,  the  changing  phases  of  the  moon  and  some 
of  the  other  heavenly  bodies,  and  the  thought  is  that 
there  are  no  variations  with  God  as  there  are  with 
the  moon,  but  that  He  is  ever  and  always  the  same. 
In  the  Old  Testament  also  we  find  the  same  great  truth. 
In  Mai.  3  :  6  Jehovah  declares : 

“I,  Jehovah,  change  not.” 

God  never  changes  in  His  character  or  His  purposes. 
He  is  always  ever  just  the  same  from  all  Eternity  and 
to  all  Eternity.  The  extreme  Evolutionists  tell  us  that 


GOD  IS  THE  ETERNAL  I  AM 


105 

there  is  a  constant  evolution  or  change  going  on  in 
all  forms  of  Being.  It  is  not  true.  In  the  one  and 
only  Being  who  has  existed  from  all  Eternity  there 
has  not  been  one  particle  of  change  from  all  Eternity 
back  of  us  and  will  be  none  to  all  Eternity  ahead  of  us. 
“If  this  is  true,  how  is  it  then,”  some  one  may  ask, 
“that  we  are  told  in  Jonah  3:10:  “And  God  saw  their 
works,  that  they  turned  from  their  evil  way;  and 
God  repented  of  the  evil,  that  he  had  said  that  he 
would  do  unto  them;  and  did  it  not?”  The  answer 
to  this  seemingly  puzzling  question  is  very  simple.  It 
is  just  because  God  did  not  change,  just  because  He 
remained  absolutely  the  same  in  His  character,  infi¬ 
nitely  hating  sin  and  in  His  purpose  to  visit  sin  with 
judgment,  that  when  Nineveh  changed  in  its  attitude 
toward  sin,  God  necessarily,  just  because  He  did  not 
change  in  His  character  changed  in  His  attitude  toward 
Nineveh  and  in  His  dealing  with  Nineveh.  If  God 
always  remains  the  same,  if  His  attitude  toward  sin 
and  righteousness  is  unchanging,  then  must  His  deal¬ 
ings  with  men  change  as  they  turn  from  sin  to  re¬ 
pentance.  His  character  remains  forever  the  same  and 
His  purpose  as  to  how  to  deal  with  sin  remains  ever 
the  same,  but  for  that  very  reason  His  dealings  with 
men  change  as  they  change  from  a  position  that  is 
hateful  to  His  unchangeable  hatred  of  sin  to  one  that 
is  pleasing  to  His  unchangeable  love  of  righteousness. 

But  the  objector  will  still  ask,  “If  it  is  true  that 
God  is  always  the  same,  how  then  is  it  that  we  are 
told  in  Gen.  6:6,  7:  “And  it  repented  Jehovah  that 
He  had  made  man  on  the  earth,  and  it  grieved  him 
at  his  heart.  And  Jehovah  said,  I  will  destroy  man 


io6  THE  GOD  OF  THE  BIBLE 

whom  I  have  created?”  This  question  may  seem  a 
little  more  puzzling  than  the  former  one,  but  the  an¬ 
swer  to  this  is  also  simple.  It  is  this :  Man’s  wicked¬ 
ness  had  become  so  great  on  this  earth  and  so  abhorrent 
to  God  that  his  very  creation  (which  God  Himself  had 
brought  to  pass)  was  the  object  of  great  grief  to  God. 
This  was  not  because  God  had  changed  but  because 
He  remained  the  same  that  He  always  had  been  in  His 
infinite  hatred  of  sin.  This  does  not  necessarily  imply 
that  God  wished,  all  things  considered,  that  He  had 
not  created  man.  It  only  means  just  exactly  what  it 
says,  ^‘that  because  of  man’s  great  and  ever-increasing 
sin  it  ‘grieved  God’  that  He  had  made  man  on  the 
earth.”  Many  things  that  you  and  I  do  are  a  grief 
to  us,  and  yet,  everything  considered,  we  do  not  wish 
that  we  had  not  done  them.  By  God’s  repenting  that 
He  had  made  man  is  meant  as  the  context  (v.  7) 
clearly  shows,  that  He  turned  from  his  creative  deal¬ 
ings  with  man  to  His  destroying  dealings,  just  as  the 
Bible  puts  it,  “And  Jehovah  said,  I  will  destroy  man 
whom  I  have  created  from  the  face  of  the  ground.” 
This  destruction  of  man  whom  He  had  created  was 
necessitated  by  man’s  sin,  the  unchangeably  Holy  God 
must  destroy  man  who  has  become  so  sunken  in  sin. 

In  this  ever-changing  world,  a  world  that  has 
changed  more  rapidly  in  its  business,  its  politics,  its 
international  relations,  and  in  its  civilization  and  domi¬ 
nant  ideas,  in  its  science  and  philosophy,  in  its  ethics 
and  in  its  religion  during  the  last  eight  years  than  in 
any  other  period  of  its  history,  and  amid  the  startling 
and  sometimes  appalling  changes  that  are  taking  place 
in  men  and  women,  sometimes  in  the  men  and  women 


GOD  IS  THE  ETERNAL  I  AM  107 

we  most  intimately  know  and  most  dearly  love,  what 
a  comfort  and  what  a  joy  it  is  to  know  that  there 
is  one  Being  who  never  changes  one  particle,  that 
He  is  always  the  same,  ‘hhe  same  yesterday  and  to¬ 
day,  yea,  and  forever”  (Heb.  13:8).  When  your 
head  is  bewildered  and  your  heart  is  sick  amid  the 
rapid  changes  that  are  taking  place  to-day  in  institu¬ 
tions,  and  in  things,  and  in  men,  and  even  in  preachers 
and  other  religious  leaders,  just  look  up  to  God  and 
behold  Him  and  rejoice  in  Him  as  the  One  who  is 
always  absolutely  the  same,  the  same  in  His  infinite 
wisdom,  the  same  in  His  infinite  righteousness,  the 
same  in  His  infinite  Holiness,  the  same  in  His  infinite 
power,  and  the  same  in  His  infinite  love.  There  is 
scarcely  another  thought  in  the  whole  range  of  glorious 
Bible  truth  more  comforting  than  that.  Oh,  I  not  only 
worship  and  adore  but  rejoice  in  and  rest  in  this  God 
of  the  Bible,  the  Unchangeable  God,  God  the  Father, 
Son  and  Holy  Ghost. 

III.  God  Is  Self -existent. 

There  is  one  more  thought  that  we  must  consider 
in  connection  with  the  Eternity  and  Immutability  of 
God,  the  God  of  the  Bible,  “the  only  true  God”;  that 
is,  that  God  has  not  only  always  existed  and  is  always 
the  same,  but  also,  God  is  self -existent.  God  not  only 
exists  from  all  eternity  but  He  exists  from  Himself. 
This  tremendous  thought  is  found  in  our  Lord’s  own 
words  in  Jno.  5 :  26  where  He  says : 

“The  Father  has  life  in  Himself.'' 

Not  life  derived  from  any  one  else  or  from  anything 


io8  THE  GOD  OF  THE  BIBLE 

else  but  ''life  in  Himself”  He  is  self-existent.  Then 
our  Lord  added  regarding  Himself,  the  second  person 
of  the  Divine  Trinity,  that  the  Father  had  given  to 
Him,  "the  Son  also  to  have  life  in  Himself,”  The 
same  great  thought  is  found  also  in  that  most  pro¬ 
foundly  philosophical  discourse  that  was  ever  delivered 
on  this  earth,  Paul’s  sermon  on  the  Areopagus  in 
Athens,  to  the  Epicurean  and  Stoic  philosophers,  re¬ 
corded  in  Acts  17 :  24-28 : 

“The  God  that  made  the  world  and  all  things 
therein.  He,  being  Lord  of  heaven  and  earth, 
dwelleth  not  in  temples  made  with  hands ; 
neither  is  He  served  by  men’s  hands,  as  though 
He  needed  anything,  seeing  He  Himself  giveth 
to  all  life,  and  breath,  and  all  things;  and  He 
made  of  one  every  nation  of  men  to  dwell  on 
all  the  face  of  the  earth,  having  determined 
their  appointed  seasons,  and  the  bounds  of  their 
habitation;  that  they  should  seek  God,  if  haply 
they  might  feel  after  Him,  and  find  Him, 
though  He  is  not  far  from  each  one  of  us:  for 

in  Him  we  live,  and  move,  and  have  our  be- 

•  >> 
mg. 

In  this  thought  also,  the  thought  that  God  is  eter¬ 
nally  self -existent,  we  have  the  answer  to  the  very 
silly  atheistic  question  mentioned  a  few  minutes  ago, 
“Who  made  God?”  The  self-evident  answer  is,  “He 
was  not  made;  He  is  eternally  self-existent.” 

Such  is  the  God  of  the  Bible,  the  only  God  whom 
the  true  Christian  worships,  the  God  whom  to  know 
is  Eternal  Life  (Jno.  17:3),  “the  only  true  God.” 
Well  might  John,  who  himself  records  so  many  of 


GOD  IS  THE  ETERNAL  I  AM 


109 

these  utterances  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  who  also  wrote 
so  many  of  these  profound  statements  about  God,  well 
might  he  say  in  I  Jno.  5  : 20,  21 :  “We  know  that  the 
Son  of  God  is  come  and  hath  given  us  an  under¬ 
standing,  that  we  know  Him  that  is  true,  and  we  are 
in  Him  that  is  true,  even  in  His  Son  Jesus  Christ. 
This  is  the  true  God,  and  eternal  life.  My  little  chil¬ 
dren,  guard  yourselves  from  idols’"  (that  is,  from  any 
god  but  this  God). 

Just  one  thought  in  closing:  Since  God  always  was 
and  always  will  be,  and  since  He  is  always  the  same. 
Who  is  so  worthy  of  our  unwavering  confidence  and 
of  our  absolute  surrender  to  Himself  as  He?  And 
what  is  so  worthy  of  our  unhesitating  confidence  as 
'His  Word?  The  history  of  human  science  and  human 
philosophy  since  the  dawn  of  man’s  thinking  and  rea¬ 
soning  has  been  a  history  of  constant  change.  What 
all  philosophers  and  scientists  regard  to-day  as  forever 
settled  is  entirely  unsettled  to-morrow.  What  all  sci¬ 
entists  accept  in  one  century  as,  e.  g.,  the  Ptolemaic 
System  (or,  theory  of  the  universe)  is  rejected  by 
all  scientists  of  another  century.  The  well  established 
science  of  to-day  is  the  butt  of  ridicule  of  all  thinking 
men  of  to-morrow.  But  God’s  thought  never  changes, 
it  is  always  the  same,  and  it  is  always  true.  What 
fools  we  are  then  to  give  up  the  unchanging  and  eter¬ 
nally  true  Word  of  the  Self-existent,  Eternal  and  eter¬ 
nally  Unchanging  God  for  the  ever-changing  scientific 
and  philosophical  theories  of  constantly  changing  man. 


CHAPTER  VI 


GOD  IS  OMNIPOTENT.  GOD  CAN  DO  ALL  THINGS,  THERE 
IS  NOTHING  TOO  HARD  FOR  HIM 

Our  general  subject  is  The  God  of  the  Bible:  The 
God  of  the  Bible  as  distinguished  from  the  god  of 
“Theosophy”  and  the  god  of  “Christian  Science”  and 
the  god  of  “Spiritualism”  and  the  god  of  “New 
Thought”  and  the  God  of  “Unitarianism”  and  the 
God  of  “The  New  Theology”  and  the  god  of  “Modern 
Philosophy”  and  the  god  of  “Modernism”  in  general. 
In  our  previous  studies  of  this  general  subject,  The 
God  of  the  Bible,  we  have  already  seen :  First,  that  the 
God  of  the  Bible  is  a  Personal  God;  Second,  that  the 
God  of  the  Bible  is  Essentially  Spirit,  Invisible  and  In¬ 
corporeal,  but  that  He  has  Manifested  Himself  to  Men 
in  a  Physical  Form,  and  that  He  Has  a  Form  Now  in 
which  He  Manifests  Himself  in  the  Celestial  World; 
Third:  that  according  to  the  teaching  of  the  Bible  there 
is  but  One  God,  but  that  in  This  One  God  there  are 
Three  Persons,  God  the  Father,  God  the  Son  (Jesus 
Christ)  and  God  the  Holy  Spirit;  Fourth,  we  have 
seen  that  God  is  Everywhere,  but  that  He  Manifests 
Himself  in  the  Fullness  of  His  Presence  and  Glory  in 
Heaven,  in  a  way  that  He  does  not  manifest  Himself 
here  on  earth ;  and  Fifth,  we  have  seen  that  God  is  the 

Eternal  I  Am,  that  He  always  Was,  that  He  always  is, 

''  no 


GOD  IS  OMNIPOTENT 


III 


and  that  He  always  Shall  Be,  and  that  He  is  always 
the  same,  and  that  He  is  Self-existent. 

The  special  subject  of  this  chapter  is.  The  God  of 
the  Bible :  God  is  Omnipotent,  God  Can  Do  All 
Things,  there  is  Nothing  Too  Hard  For  Him.  I  have 
six  texts.  You  will  find  the  first  text  in  Job  42:2: 

‘1  know  that  thou  canst  do  all  things,  and 
that  no  purpose  of  thine  can  be  restrained.” 

You  will  find  the  second  text  in  Gen.  18:  14: 

‘Ts  anything  too  hard  for  Jehovah?” 

You  will  find  the  third  text  in  Gen.  1:1: 

“In  the  beginning  God  created  the  heavens 
and  the  earth.” 

You  will  find  the  fourth  text  in  Jer.  32 :  17,  26,  27 : 

“Ah  Lord  Jehovah!  behold  thou  hast  made 
the  heavens  and  the  earth  by  thy  great  power 
and  by  thine  outstretched  arm,  there  is  noth¬ 
ing  too  hard  for  thee.  .  .  .  (26,  27.)  Then 

came  the  word  of  Jehovah  unto  Jeremiah,  say¬ 
ing,  Behold,  I  am  Jehovah,  the  God  of  all  flesh: 
is  there  anything  too  hard  for  me?” 

You  will  find  the  fifth  text  in  Gen.  1:3: 

“And  God  said.  Let  there  be  light :  and  there 
was  light.” 

And  you  will  find  the  sixth  text  in  Matt.  19:26: 

“And  Jesus  looking  upon  them  said  to  them, 
With  men  this  is  impossible;  but  with  God  all 
things  are  possible. 

You  will  note  that  five  of  these  six  texts  are  from 
the  Old  Testament,  and  that  three  of  them  are  from  the 
first  book  in  the  Bible,  and  that  one  is  from  the  book 
of  Job  which  is  regarded  by  many  scholars  as  one  of 


II2 


THE  GOD  OF  THE  BIBLE 


the  oldest  books  of  the  Bible  and  by  some  as  the  very 
oldest  book.  One  of  these  texts  is  the  very  first  verse 
in  the  Bible,  and  one  of  the  most  remarkable  and 
significant  of  the  texts  is  the  third  verse  in  the  Bible. 
Some  of  these  passages,  so  lofty  both  in  their  thought 
and  in  their  expression  of  the  thought,  were  written 
about  thirty-three  hundred  and  seventy  years  ago, 
and  there  is  every  reason  for  supposing  that  Moses 
derived  his  account  of  Creation  from  much  earlier 
sources.  So  I  ask  again  the  question  which  I  asked 
in  our  last  study  of  The  God  of  the  Bible,  How  did 
Jeremiah  and  Job  and  Moses  living  in  such  a  far  away 
past,  many  centuries  before  even  the  earliest  heathen 
philosophers  had  worked  out  their  vague  and  indefi¬ 
nite  and  inadequate  and  now  entirely  antiquated  con¬ 
ceptions  of  God,  attain  to  such  a  lofty  view  of  God? 
And  in  reply  I  declare  again  that  there  is  but  one  an¬ 
swer  to  such  a  question  that  has  in  it  even  the  remot¬ 
est  approach  to  reasonableness  and  that  is,  that  God 
supernaturally  revealed  Himself  to  those  men  and 
declared  to  them  these  lofty  truths  about  Himself,  and 
that  this  Bible  is,  even  in  its  earliest  and  most  ancient 
parts,  beyond  a  question,  a  supernatural  book,  a  super¬ 
natural  revelation,  and  the  unique  and  inerrant  inspira¬ 
tion  of  the  Bible  in  all  its  parts  is  a  scientifically  proven 
fact. 

The  doctrine  that  the  Bible  presents  to  us  a  Revela¬ 
tion  given  directly  by  God  to  men  whom  He  had  Him¬ 
self  chosen  for  that  purpose,  and  who  spoke  and  wrote 
as  they  were  ‘‘inspired,”  and  “borne  along”  in  their 
utterances  “by  the  Holy  Spirit”  (II  Tim.  3 :  16;  H  Pet. 
1:21)  is  scientifically  demonstrated,  it  is  an  unescapa- 


GOD  IS  OMNIPOTENT 


113 

ble  conclusion  from  facts  that  lie  right  before  our 
own  eyes  to-day.  The  doctrine  of  the  Divine  Inspira¬ 
tion  of  the  Bible  is  demanded  and  necessitated  by  the 
inexorable  logic  of  facts,  and  not  merely  from  facts  of 
a  long,  long  ago  but  present-day  facts  that  we  can  see 
for  ourselves  with  our  own  eyes. 

Among  the  many  fantastic  theories  of  the  Higher 
Criticism  is  the  much  cherished  one  that  the  account 
of  Creation  in  the  Bible  was  derived  from  the  early 
Accadian  traditions.  But  the  Accadian  accounts  con¬ 
tain  no  lofty  teachings  about  God  such  as  we  find  in 
the  Bible.  On  the  contrary  they  are  replete  with  the 
most  childish  and  now  utterly  discarded  fancies  about 
the  birth  of  the  gods  of  their  puerile  mythology.  The 
Bible  representations  of  God  stand  not  only  apart  from 
all  the  literature  or  fragments  of  literature  of  that  day, 
but  from  the  literature  of  all  days,  even  from  the  liter¬ 
ature  of  our  own  day,  this  day  supposedly  of  such  un¬ 
exampled  enlightenment,  except  in  so  far  as  the  litera¬ 
ture  of  to-day  has  borrowed  its  views  of  God  from 
this  old,  old  Book. 

/.  God  Is  Omnipotent:  He  Can  Do  Anything 

The  first  thing  that  these  lofty  and  matchless  and 
evidently  Divinely  Inspired  utterances  of  Jeremiah 
and  Moses  and  Job  and  our  Lord  Jesus  Himself  make 
clear  is,  that,  there  is  no  limit  whatever  to  the  power 
of  the  God  of  the  Bible,  there  is  nothing  He  cannot 
do.  There  is  nothing,  absolutely  nothing,  too  hard  for 
Him. 

What  a  heartening  and  gladdening  and  overwhelm- 


THE  GOD  OF  THE  BIBLE 


114 

ingly  thrilling,  as  well  as  awe-inspiring,  thought  it  is 
that  there  is  One  Being  in  this  universe  whose  power 
has  no  limits,  who  can  do  absolutely  anything  He  wills 
to  do,  and  do  it  by  His  mere  will  and  word,  and  do  it 
in  the  instant  He  wills  it,  and  not  by  a  slow,  age-re¬ 
quiring  process  of  evolution.  All  the  comfort  and  all 
the  joy  and  all  the  soul-stirring  inspiration  there  is  in 
that  thought  can  only  be  felt  when  we  put  it  in  con¬ 
junction  with  the  thought  of  the  moral  character  of 
the  Being  who  possesses  this  power,  His  Righteous¬ 
ness,  and  His  Holiness,  and  His  Love,  and  His  Loving¬ 
kindness  (all  of  which  we  are  to  study  later  as  they 
are  set  forth  in  this  wonderful  Book  of  God),  and  also 
in  conjunction  with  the  thought  of  the  relation  of  thi3 
Omnipotent  God  to  us,  namely,  that  He  is  our  Father, 
the  Father  of  every  one  who  truly  believes  in  His  Son 
Jesus  Christ. 

But  let  us  go  somewhat  into  particulars,  as  the  Bible 
itself  does,  in  the  setting  forth  of  this  truth,  both  so 
wonderful  and  so  glorious,  of  the  Omnipotence  of 
God. 

I.  In  the  first  place,  All  nature,  not  the  whole  earth 
only,  but  all  those  innumerable  stars,  perhaps  five  hun¬ 
dred  million  of  them  according  to  the  latest  opinion 
of  the  best  astronomers,  and  each  one  of  them  of  such 
vast  magnitude  that  our  minds  cannot  take  it  in,  and 
in  comparison  with  which  our  whole  earth  is  but  a 
mere  speck,  all  these  inconceivably  vast  worlds  are  sub¬ 
ject  to  the  voill  and  Word  of  God.  Listen  to  what 
David  says  in  Ps.  33  :  6-9 : 

“By  the  word  of  Jehovah  were  the  heavens 
made; 


GOD  IS  OMNIPOTENT 


115 

And  all  the  host  of  them  by  the  breath  of 
His  mouth. 

He  gathereth  the  waters  of  the  sea  together 
as  an  heap : 

He  layeth  up  the  depth  in  storehouses. 

Let  all  the  earth  fear  Jehovah: 

Let  all  the  inhabitants  of  the  world  stand  in 
awe  of  Him. 

For  He  spake,  and  it  was  done; 

He  commonded,  and  it  stood  fast/^ 

Listen  to  what  Jehovah  (The  Everlasting  God,  the 
Eternal  I  Am)  said  through  Nahum,  one  of  the  older 
Prophets,  antedating  Ezekiel  and  Jeremiah.  Nah. 
1:3-6: 

“Jehovah  is  slow  to  anger,  and  great  in 
power. 

And  will  by  no  means  clear  the  wicked : 
Jehovah  hath  His  way  in  the  whirlwind  and 
in  the  storm. 

And  the  clouds  are  the  dust  of  His  feet. 

He  rebuketh  the  sea  and  maketh  it  dry. 

And  drieth  up  all  the  rivers : 

Bashan  languisheth,  and  Carmel, 

And  the  flower  of  Lebanon  languisheth. 

The  mountains  quake  at  Him,  and  the  hills 
melt; 

And  the  earth  is  upheaved  at  His  presence, 
Yea,  the  world,  and  all  that  dwell  therein. 
Who  can  stand  before  His  indignation? 

Who  can  abide  in  the  fierceness  of  His  anger? 
His  wrath  is  poured  out  like  fire. 

And  the  rocks  are  broken  asunder  by  Him.” 


I 


ii6 


THE  GOD  OF  THE  BIBLE 


Merely  as  literature,  what  can  match  in  vividness 
and  force  and  splendor  and  sublimity  of  expression 
these  utterances  of  this  man  of  long,  long  ago,  whom 
“God’^  “inspired,^’  and  whose  ^'writings’'  Paul  de¬ 
clares  were  “God-breathed”;  and  we  can  see  for  our¬ 
selves  to-day  that  this  statement  of  Paul’s  must  be  true. 

But  I  have  reserved  one  brief  statement  that  arises 
to  loftier  heights  than  these  all,  and  it  is  found  in  the 
first  book  in  the  Bible,  and  in  the  first  chapter  of  that 
book,  and  in  the  first  three  verses  of  that  chapter : 

“In  the  beginning  God  created  the  heavens 
and  the  earth.  And  the  earth  was  waste  and 
void;  and  darkness  was  upon  the  face  of  the 
deep:  And  the  Spirit  of  God  moved  upon  (was 
brooding  over)  the  face  of  the  waters.  And 
God  said.  Let  there  be  light:  and  there  was 
light.” 

Notice  especially  the  closing  words,  “And  God  said, 
Let  there  be  light :  and  there  was  light.”  That  is  one 
of  the  most  remarkable  sentences  that  was  ever  writ¬ 
ten,  remarkable  in  its  sublimity,  and  remarkable  also 
in  its  beauty,  brevity  and  simplicity.  The  Hebrew 
literally  translated  is  even  more  remarkable.  Let  me 
give  you  an  exactly  literal  translation,  “And  God  said, 
Light  he;  and  Light  was.”  Yet  our  sons  and  daugh¬ 
ters  are  being  taught  in  our  colleges  and  even  our  lit¬ 
tle  boys  and  girls  in  our  public  schools,  and  sometimes 
even  in  some  of  our  Sunday  schools,  that  the  first 
chapter  of  Genesis  is  only  “Folk  Lore.”  Let  me  say  in 
the  light  of  the  facts,  that  to  say  that  the  first  chapter 
of  Genesis  is  “Folk  Lore”  is  “Fool  Talk,”  no  matter 
how  learned  and  scientific  the  gentlemen  may  claim  to 


GOD  IS  OMNIPOTENT 


117 

be  who  indulge  in  this  kind  of  thoroughly  puerile  non¬ 
sense.  Gen.  1 :  1-3,  written  so  many  centuries  before 
modern  science  and  philosophy  were  dreamed  of,  bears 
on  its  face  the  unmistakable  marks  of  Divine  Inspira¬ 
tion.  The  very  first  verses  of  the  Bible  bear  the  un¬ 
mistakable  stamp  and  seal  of  their  Divine  Origin. 

2.  In  the  second  place,  Not  only  is  all  nature  sub¬ 
ject  to  God’s  will  and  Word  but  all  men  are  also  sub¬ 
ject  to  the  will  and  Word  of  God.  Listen  to  James  4: 

13-15  •• 

'‘Come  now,  ye  that  say.  To-day  or  to-mor¬ 
row  we  will  go  into  this  city,  and  spend  a  year 
there,  and  trade  and  get  gain :  whereas  ye  know 
not  what  shall  be  on  the  morrow.  What  is 
your  life?  For  ye  are  a  vapour,  that  appeareth 
for  a  little  time,  and  then  vanisheth  away.  For 
that  ye  ought  to  say,  If  the  Lord  will  we  shall 
both  live,  and  do  this  or  that.” 

What  God  wills  man  must  do.  There  is  no  thwart¬ 
ing  the  purpose  of  God,  and  there  is  no  subverting  of 
His  Word.  What  God  promises  and  what  God 
threatens  are  both  as  absolutely  sure  to  be  done  as  if  it 
were  already  accomplished.  We  form  our  plans  and 
marshal  our  resources,  and  sometimes  they  seem  very 
great;  indeed  they  seem  invincible  and  irresistible,  but, 
if  God  plans  otherwise,  all  our  wisest  schemes  and  all 
our  most  determined  and  most  potent  efforts  come  to 
nothing.  We  say  ‘7  will  do  this  or  that,”  and  it  seems 
as  if  nothing  could  prevent  us,  but  how  often  man’s 
impotent  ‘7  wilF'  is  met  by  God’s  Omnipotent  ‘7 
won't.”  This  is  what  we  would  more  wisely  say,  ‘7/ 
the  Lord  will,  we  shall  live  and  do  this  or  that,”  (Jas. 


ii8  THE  GOD  OF  THE  BIBLE 

4:  15).  But,  if  the  Lord  won’t,  we  shall  not  do  this 
or  that,  no  matter  how  irresistible  the  forces  that  are 
at  our  command  may  seem.  We  have  it  constantly 
dinned  into  our  ears  in  this  day  of  man’s  magnificent 
self-confidence,  “the  will  is  omnipotent.”  Yes,  “the 
will  is  omnipotent”;  but  zvhose  will?  God’s  will,  Je¬ 
hovah’s  will — and  His  alone.  All  nature  and  all  men 
must  do  His  will. 

Happy  is  the  man  who  voluntarily  and  gladly  sub¬ 
jects  himself  to  God’s  will  and  Word.  We  would  far 
better  do  it  from  choice;  for  in  the  ultimate  outcome 
we  will  have  to  do  it  anyhow.  And  there  is  all  the 
difference  betwe^  heaven  and  hell  in  doing  the  will  of 
God  voluntarily  or  doing  it  by  compulsion.  Do  it  we 
must, 

Napoleon  was  the  ablest  general  of  his  day,  and 
probably  of  all  time,  at  the  same  time  he  was  the  most 
adroit  politician  the  world  has  ever  seen,  and  he  was 
also  a  man  of  the  most  unconquerable  will.  He  willed 
to  have  the  whole  world  at  his  feet;  and  it  seemed  as 
if  it  would  be,  and  as  if  nothing  could  prevent.  But 
God  willed  otherwise.  God  spoke,  and  the  soft  and 
gentle  snow  flakes  fell,  and  they  fell,  and  they  fell, 
and  they  kept  on  falling:  and  Napoleon  Bonaparte'  fell 
also. 

Kaiser  Wilhelm  also  determined  to  rule  the  world 
with  “Deutschland  fiber  alles.”  And  years  went  into 
preparation,  marvelously  ingenious  preparation  of  the 
best  trained  army  the  world  ever  knew,  the  best  guns, 
the  mightiest  navy,  unconquerable  and  almost  innu¬ 
merable  submarines,  wonderful  fortresses,  mighty  Zep- 


GOD  IS  OMNIPOTENT 


119 

pelins  that  filled  London  with  terror  and  came  within 
one  of  laying  it  in  ruins,  destructive  gases  the  world 
had  never  dreamed  of,  and  much  besides.  Germany 
must  conquer.  But  Kaiser  Wilhelm’s  "7  will”  was  met 
by  the  Lord  God  Almighty’s  W  won^t”  And  the 
army  is  scattered,  and  the  navy  and  submarines 
scrapped,  the  Zeppelins  in  ashes,  the  gases  evaporated 
and  Heligoland  dynamited,  dismantled,  a  pile  of  ex¬ 
pensive  rubbish. 

The  whole  human  race  and  every  member  of  it, 
from  emperor  to  blind  beggar  or  outcast  leper,  is  sub¬ 
ject  to  the  will  and  Word  of  God.  The  time  is  fast 
coming  when  all  who  have  sought  to  withstand  His 
will,  “the  kings  of  the  earth,  and  the  princes,  and  the 
chiliarchs,  and  the  rich,  and  the  strong,  and  every 
bondman  and  freeman”  shall  hide  “themselves  in  the 
caves  and  in  the  rocks  of  the  mountains;  and  they 
(shall)  say  to  the  mountains  and  to  the  rocks.  Fall 
on  us,  and  hide  us  from  the  face  of  him  that  sitteth 
on  the  throne,  and  from  the  wrath  of  the  Lamb:  for 
the  great  day  of  their  wrath  is  come;  and  who  is  able 
to  stand?”  (Rev.  6:15-17).  Yes,  the  time  is  fast 
coming  when  not  only  shall  the  will  of  God  be  resist¬ 
less  (as  it  is  to-day),  but  when  all  the  world  shall 
know  it  and  when  all  shall  hear  “as  it  were  the  voice 
of  a  great  multitude,  and  as  the  voice  of  many  waters, 
and  as  the  voice  of  mighty  thunders,  saying.  Hallelu¬ 
jah:  for  the  Lord  God  Omnipotent  reigneth”  (Rev. 
19:  6). 

I  am  not  greatly  troubled  about  the  Bolshevik 
machinations  in  Russia  and  throughout  the  world,  or 


120 


THE  GOD  OF  THE  BIBLE 


by  the  plots  of  Germany  and  her  conspiracy  with  Rus¬ 
sia,  even  if  “together  they  do  form  two-thirds  of  the 
population  of  Europe,”  nor  about  the  miscarriage  of 
well  meant  plans  at  Versailles  or  Genoa,  or  Lausanne. 
In  spite  of  all  this  and  all  else,  I  know  that  God  is 
Omnipotent,  and  that  He  reigns,  and  that  His  king¬ 
dom  will  come  and  His  will  be  done  on  earth  as 
it  is  in  heaven,  and  that  in  due  time,  “the  kingdoms 
of  this  world  (shall)  become  the  kingdoms  of  our 
Lord,  and  of  His  Christ;  and  He  shall  reign  forever 
and  ever”  (Rev.  ii:  15). 

Any  one  who  really  and  intelligently  believes  in  the 
God  of  the  Bible  is  bound  to  be  an  optimist.  I  am 
sometimes  asked,  “How  can  you  be  such  a  constant 
optimist  under  present  conditions?”  I  will  tell  you, 
it  is  because  I  believe  in  God,  in  the  God  of  the  Bible, 
an  Omnipotent  God  who  can  do  anything,  and  for 
whom  nothing  is  too  hard.  Oh,  it  is  a  great  thing  to 
really  believe  in  the  God  of  the  Bible,  an  Omnipotent 
God,  a  God  for  Whom  absolutely  nothing  is  too  hard, 
Who  can  do  anything.  I  would  rather  believe  in  such 
a  God  and  not  have  a  penny  in  my  pocket  at  the  pres¬ 
ent  moment,  than  not  to  believe  in  Him  and  have  a  bil¬ 
lion  dollars  in  the  bank  awaiting  my  call.  Oh,  you 
men  who  have  your  thousands  and  your  millions  of 
money,  keep  them!  Give  me  God. 

3.  In  the  third  place.  All  the  angels  are  subject  to 
the  will  and  Word  of  God,  In  Heb.  i :  13,  14,  we 
read : 

“But  of  which  of  the  angels  saith  He  at  any 
time. 

Sit  thou  on  my  right  hand, 


GOD  IS  OMNIPOTENT 


I2I 


Till  I  make  thine  enemies  the  footstool  of 
thy  feet? 

Are  they  not  all  ministering  spirits,  sent  forth 
to  do  service  for  the  sake  of  them  that  shall  in¬ 
herit  salvation?” 

We  constantly  think  of  men,  the  intelligent  beings 
who  in  a  bodily  and  visible  form  inhabit  this  globe,  as 
being  the  only  intelligences  in  the  universe.  How  ab¬ 
surd!  absurd  not  only  from  the  standpoint  of  Bible 
teaching  but  also  from  the  standpoint  of  an  open-eyed 
science  and  of  common  sense.  This  vast  world  tO' 
whose  stupendous  magnitude  science  is  beginning  to 
open  our  eyes,  and  to  think  that  we  are  the  only  in¬ 
telligences  in  it!  Ridiculous!  No!  there  are  countless 
angelic  hosts  with  ranks  and  super-ranks  among  them, 
“angels”  and  “principalities”  and  “powers”  and  “world 
rulers”  and  “spiritual  hosts”  and  “authorities”  and 
“dominions”  (Eph.  6:12;  R.  V.  1:21),  with  wisdom 
and  power  far  transcending  that  of  men.  Why,  the 
Angel  of  Jehovah  passed  through  a  camp  of  the  ene¬ 
mies  of  God’s  children,  and  when  men  awoke  in  the 
morning  there  were  one  hundred  and  eighty-five  thou¬ 
sand  who  did  not  awake;  they  were  corpses  (II  Kings 
19:35).  And  all  these  vast,  innumerable,  potent  an¬ 
gelic  hosts  are  at  God’s  command;  they  are  one  and  all 
subject  to  His  will  and  His  Word.  Therefore,  I  can¬ 
not  see  why  I  should  not  sing  in  the  midst  of  any 
seeming  perils,  when  confronted  and  surrounded  by 
countless  foes,  as  David  sang  of  old : 

“Jehovah  is  my  light  and  my  salvation; 

Whom  shall  I  fear? 

Jehovah  is  the  strength  of  my  life; 


THE  GOD  OF  THE  BIBLE 

Of  whom  shall  I  he  afraid? 

When  evil  doers  came  upon  me  to  eat  up  my 
flesh, 

Even  mine  adversaries  and  my  foes, 

They  stumbled  and  fell. 

Though  an  host  should  encamp  against  me. 
My  heart  shall  not  fear; 

Though  war  should  rise  against  me, 

Even  then  will  I  be  confident”  (Ps.  27:  1-3). 
In  the  fourth  place.  The  Devil  is  absolutely  sub¬ 
ject  to  the  will  and  Word  of  our  Omnipotent  God. 
This  comes  out  very  plainly  in  the  first  and  second 
chapters  of  the  book  of  Job.  Read  these  two  chapters 
through  entirely.  We  are  told  how  Satan  maligned 
Job  before  God  and  asked  the  privilege  of  touching 
his  property,  saying  if  God  would  permit  him  to  take 
Job’s  property  away,  Job  would  renounce  Jehovah  to 
His  face.  But  Jehovah  did  not  permit  Satan  to  touch 
Job’s  body.  So  we  see  that  Satan  could  do  only  what 
Jehovah  permitted  him  to  do.  He  could  not  go  one 
step  further  than  God  said  “You  may.”  In  the 
second  chapter  Satan  appears  again  and  maligns  Job 
and  tells  Jehovah  that  if  He  will  permit  him  to  touch 
his  “bone  and  his  flesh”  that  Job  will  renounce  Jehovah 
to  His  face.  This  time  Satan  is  permitted  to  touch 
Job’s  body,  but  is  compelled  to  “spare  his  life.”  Again 
we  see  that  Satan  even  with  all  his  power  could  go  no 
further,  not  one  inch  further,  than  Jehovah  permitted 
him  to  go.  So  we  see  that  Satan  himself  is  subject  to 
the  will  and  Word  of  God,  and  can  only  do  what  God 
for  His  own  wise  purposes  permits.  As  great  as  the 
Devil  is  in  cunning  and  in  power,  one  who  is  in  fel- 


122 


\ 


4- 


GOD  IS  OMNIPOTENT 


123 

lowship  with  the  Omnipotent  God  has  no  need  to  fear 
him. 

To  sum  it  all  up:  All  nature  is  absolutely  subject 
to  God’s  will  and  Word;  all  men  are  absolutely  sub¬ 
ject  to  God’s  will  and  Word;  all  the  angels,  fallen  and 
unfallen,  are  subject  to  God’s  will  and  Word;  and 
Satan  himself  is  absolutely  subject  to  the  will  and 
Word  of  God.  God  is  Omnipotent.  He  can  do  any¬ 
thing,  and  do  all  things.  There  is  nothing,  absolutely 
nothing,  too  hard  for  him.  There  are  countless  blessed 
and  glorious  applications  of  and  inferences  from  this 
great  truth,  but  we  have  not  time  now  to  con¬ 
sider  them.  You  must  each  of  you  make  these  applica¬ 
tions  and  inferences  for  yourselves;  but  it  will  take 
you  your  whole  lifetime  to  discover  them  all,  and  you 
will  rejoice  in  them  throughout  all  eternity. 

The  Bible  ascribes  the  same  Omnipotence  that  it 
predicates  of  the  Father  to  the  Son  of  God  also.  In 
many  passages  in  the  Gospels  we  see  how  the  Son  of 
God  had  power  over  disease,  how  disease  in  all  its 
forms  was  subject  to  His  mere  Word  (e.  g.,  Luke 
4:39).  In  still  other  passages  we  see  Death  subject 
to  His  Word  (e.  g.,  Luke  7:  14,  15;  8:54,  55;  Jno. 
5:25).  Again  we  see  how  He  had  power  over  the 
elements,  over  the  wind  and  sea,  how  they  were  subject 
to  His  Word  (Matt.  8:  26,  27).  He  had  power  over 
the  demons  also,  they  trembled  at  His  presence  and 
were  subject  to  His  Word.  We  read  in  Matt.  8:16: 

“And  when  even  was  come,  they  brought 
unto  Him  many  possessed  with  demons:  and 
He  cast  out  the  spirits  zvith  a  word,  and  healed 
all  that  were  sick.” 


124  the  god  of  the  BIBLE 

We  read  in  Luke  4:35,  36 : 

^^And  Jesus  rebuked  him  (that  is  rebuked 
the  unclean  demon  in  the  man),  saying,  Hold 
thy  peace,  and  come  out  of  him.  And  when 
the  demon  had  thrown  him  down  in  the  midst, 
he  came  out  of  him,  having  done  him  no  hurt.’^ 

And  in  the  forty-first  verse  we  read : 

‘‘And  the  demons  also  came  out  from  many, 
crying  out,  and  saying.  Thou  art  the  Son  of 
God.  And  rebuking  them.  He  suffered  them 
not  to  speak.’^ 

In  Eph.  1 : 20-23,  we  are  told  that  all  the  heavenly 
hierarchies  of  angels  are  under  Him  and  subject  to 
His  Word.  Here  is  the  Bible  statement: 

“He  raised  him  (that  is,  Jesus  Christ)  from 
the  dead,  and  made  him  to  sit  at  His  right  hand 
in  the  heavenly  places,  far  above  all  rule,  and 
authority,  and  power,  and  dominion,  and  every 
name  that  is  named,  not  only  in  this  age,  but 
also  in  that  which  is  to  come :  and  he  put  all 
things  in  subjection  under  his  feet,  and  gave 
him  to  be  head  over  all  things  to  the  church.’’ 

And  our  Lord  Jesus  Himself  said  in  Matt.  28:  18: 

“All  authority  hath  been  given  unto  me  in 
heaven  and  on  earth.” 

And  in  Heb.  i :  3  we  are  told  that  the  Son  of  God 
^^upholds  all  things  by  the  word  of  His  power.” 

The  Bible  also  tells  us  that  Omnipotence  belongs  to 
the  third  person  of  the  Trinity,  the  Holy  Spirit.  In 
announcing  to  the  Virgin  the  coming  Birth  of  her  Son, 
the  God-sent  messenger  said  in  Luke  1:35: 

“The  Holy  Spirit  shall  come  upon  thee,  and 


GOD  IS  OMNIPOTENT 


1^5 

the  power  of  the  Most  High  shall  overshadow 
thee :  wherefore  also  the  holy  thing  which  is  be¬ 
gotten  of  thee  shall  be  called  the  Son  of  God.” 

In  this  verse,  “the  power  of  the  Most  High/'  that  is, 
Omnipotence,  is  ascribed  to  the  Holy  Spirit.  And 
in  the  opening  verses  of  the  Bible  we  read  regarding 
the  Holy  Spirit : 

“In  the  beginning  God  created  the  heavens 
and  the  earth.  And  the  earth  was  waste  and 
void;  and  darkness  was  upon  the  face  of  the 
deep :  and  the  Spirit  of  God  moved  upon  the 
face  of  the  waters.  And  God  said.  Light  me : 
And  light  was  (Gen.  i :  1-3). 

Oh,  Wondrous  Triune  God  of  the  Bible,  Omnipo¬ 
tent  Father,  Omnipotent  Son  our  Saviour,  Omnipotent 
Holy  Spirit  our  Sanctifier  and  Empowerer!  What  a 
marvelous  God  the  God  of  the  Bible  is  compared  with 
the  little  godlettes  of  “Theosophy”  and  “Christian 
Science”  and  “New  Thought”  and  “Spiritualism”  and 
“The  New  Theology”  and  “Modern  Philosophy”  and 
all  of  the  learned  Modern  Stupidity  that  passes  muster 
with  so  many  as  philosophical  profundity.  Much  that 
is  called  philosophy  is  merely  “striving  after  wind” 
(Ecc.  2:  17)  and  a  “feeding  on  wind.” 

//.  The  Exercise  of  God's  Omnipotence  Is  Limited  by 
His  Own  Wise  and  Holy  and  Loving  Will. 

Before  we  leave  this  exhaustless  subject  of  the 
Omnipotence  of  God,  one  more  thing  should  be  said 
and  that  is :  The  exercise  of  God's  Omnipotence  is 
limited  by  His  own  Wise  and  Holy  and  Loving  Will. 


126  THE  GOD  OF  THE  BIBLE 

God  can  do  anything  but  will  do  only  that  which  In¬ 
finite  wisdom  and  holiness  and  love  dictate.  This 
comes  out  in  many  places  in  the  Bible,  e.  g.,  in  Isa. 
59-  L  2: 

“Behold,  Jehovah’s  hand  is  not  shortened, 
that  it  cannot  save;  neither  His  ear  heavy,  that 
he  cannot  hear:  But  your  iniquities  have  sepa¬ 
rated  between  you  and  your  God,  and  your 
sins  have  hid  His  face  from  you,  so  that  He 
will  not  hear.” 

The  question  is  often  asked,  and  it  is  a  very  natural 
question,  “If  God  is  Omnipotent  why  does  he  not  de¬ 
stroy  the  Devil  and  bring  his  awful  work  to  an  end.” 
If  we  could  not  answer  the  question,  we  could  rest 
perfectly  at  peace  in  the  thought  that  an  Infinitely 
Wise  God  could  easily  have  a  thousand  perfectly  good 
reasons  for  doing  or  not  doing  a  thing,  when  we  in 
our  finite  foolishness  could  not  see  even  one.  But  in 
this  case  the  answer  to  the  question  is  simple  and  easy. 
God  does  not  destroy  the  Devil  as  yet  or  put  him  out 
of  business  as  yet,  because  by  his  very  malevolence  he 
is  working  out  part  of  God’s  benevolent  purposes. 
God  has  purposes  of  love  yet  to  be  wrought  out  in  a 
measure  by  the  Devil’s  unintentional  cooperation.  For 
example,  the  Devil  put  it  into  the  heart  of  Judas 
Iscariot  to  betray  his  Lord;  but  the  Devil  by  so  doing 
simply  fulfilled  God’s  prophecies  of  centuries  before 
and  confirmed  the  Divine  origin  and  Inerrancy  of  the 
Book  of  God;  and  further  than  that,  the  Devil  by  so 
doing  led  on  to  the  Atoning  Death  of  the  Son  of  God, 
that  meant  salvation  and  pardon,  justification  and 


GOD  IS  OMNIPOTENT  127 

eternal  life,  Sonship  and  co-heirship  with  Jesus  Christ 
for  you  and  me. 

God  is  Omnipotent.  He  rules  the  universe.  He 
rules  heaven  and  earth.  Yes,  Hades  and  Hell  also. 
Not  one  thing  can  be  done  by  all  the  frightful  forces 
of  misdirected  nature,  nor  by  the  most  potent  men, 
nor  by  angels  nor  by  the  demons  nor  by  the  Devil  him¬ 
self,  except  by  God’s  permission.  Not  one  single 
demon  can  enter  a  pig  but  by  the  consent  of  the  Son 
of  God  (Mk.  5:  1-13).  God  rules  the  world  and  so 
the  ultimate  outcome  is  sure.  “The  Lord  God  Omnip¬ 
otent  reigneth”  and  “the  kingdoms  of  the  world  shall 
become  the  kingdoms  of  our  Lord  and  of  His  Christ: 
and  He  shall  reign  forever  and  ever”  (Rev.  ii :  15). 


CHAPTER  VII 


GOD  IS  omniscient;  he  knows  everything 

I  will  not  attempt  to  summarize  in  this  chapter  what 
we  have  learned  about  God  in  six  preceding  chapters, 
but  will  call  attention  again  to  this  very  important  and 
deeply  significant  fact  that  we  have  discovered,  that 
the  Bible  even  in  its  earliest  books,  books  written 
nearly  thirty-four  hundred  years  ago,  presents  a  con¬ 
ception  of  God  that  is  more  profound,  more  lofty, 
more  awe-inspiring  and  more  heartening  and  gladden¬ 
ing  than  is  to  be  found  in  all  the  profoundest  philoso¬ 
phies  of  the  past  or  even  of  the  present  day,  except  in 
so  far  as  the  philosophies  of  the  present  day  have 
formed  their  conception  of  God  from  this  old,  old 
Book,  the  Bible.  And  we  have  also  discovered  that 
there  is  not  to  be  found  in  all  of  the  literature  outside 
of  the  Bible  of  all  the  nations  and  of  all  the  ages  any¬ 
thing  that  even  approaches  the  Bible  statements  in 
beauty,  simplicity,  grandeur,  splendor  and  sublimity  of 
expression.  And  I  call  your  attention  again  to  the  only 
explanation  of  these  unquestionable  facts  that  has  even 
the  slightest  semblance  of  reasonableness;  and  that  is, 
that  the  Bible  even  in  its  earliest  portions  is  a  revela¬ 
tion  from  God,  and  that  these  earliest  Bible  writers 
wrote  these  very  words  as  the  Holy  Spirit  moved  them 

and  impelled  them  and  empowered  them  to  write,  and 

128 


GOD  IS  OMNISCIENT 


129 

that  beyond  any  honest  question  these  earliest  portions 
of  the  Holy  Scriptures  are  really,  as  Paul  declared  they 
were,  “God-breathed”  (II  Tim.  3:  16). 

In  our  last  chapter  our  particular  subject  was, 
“The  God  of  the  Bible :  God  is  Omnipotent,  He  can 
do  all  things.  There  is  absolutely  nothing  too  hard  for 
Him.”  The  special  subject  of  this  chapter  is,  “The 
God  of  the  Bible :  God  is  Omniscient.  Pie  knows  all 
things.”  I  have  seven  texts.  You  will  find  the  first 
text  in  Job  37:  14-16: 

“Hearken  unto  this,  O  Job: 

Stand  still,  and  consider  the  wondrous  works 
of  God. 

Dost  thou  know  how  God  layeth  His  charge 
upon  them. 

And  causeth  the  lightning  of  His  cloud  to 
shine  ? 

Dost  thou  know  the  balancings  of  the 
clouds. 

The  wondrous  works  of  Him  who  is  perfect 
in  knowledge?'' 

You  will  find  the  second  text  in  Ps.  147:4: 

“He  counteth  the  number  of  the  stars; 

He  calleth  them  all  by  their  names” 

You  will  find  the  third  text  in  Ps.  147:  5 : 

“Great  is  our  Lord,  and  mighty  in  power; 

His  understanding  is  infinite” 

You  will  find  the  fourth  text  in  I  Jno.  3:20: 

“If  our  heart  condemn  us,  God  is  greater 
than  our  heart,  and  knoweth  all  things” 

You  will  find  the  fifth  text  in  Matt.  10:  29,  30: 

“Are  not  two  sparrows  sold  for  a  penny? 


130 


THE  GOD  OF  THE  BIBLE 


and  not  one  of  them  shall  fall  on  the  ground 
without  your  Father:  but  the  very  hairs  of  your 
head  are  all  numbered.” 

You  will  find  the  sixth  text  in  Acts  15^  18: 

*'The  Lord  maketh  these  things  known  from 
of  old.” 

And  you  will  find  the  last  text  in  Rom.  11:33: 

“O  the  depth  of  the  riches  both  of  the  wis¬ 
dom  and  the  knowledge  of  God !  how  unsearch¬ 
able  are  his  judgments,  and  his  ways  past  trac¬ 
ing  out.” 

/.  God  is  Omniscient. 

Let  me  ask  you  to  reflect  upon,  to  ponder  and  to 
meditate  long  upon  these  passages.  No  mere  cursory 
reading  of  any  verbal  statement,  no  matter  how  simple, 
lucid,  exact  and  complete  it  may  be,  will  enable  you  to 
take  in  all  the  marvelous  wealth  of  meaning  that  there 
is  in  these  brief  but  wondrous  statements  of  God^s 
Word.  They  must  be  pondered  long  under  the  per¬ 
sonal  illumination  of  the  Holy  Spirit  if  we  are  to  see 
and  to  feel  the  glorious  truth  that  there  is  in  them. 
They,  however,  clearly  teach  us  that,  God  ''is  perfect 
IN  knowledge”  ;  that,  "His  understanding  is  infinite” ; 
that,  God  "knows  all  things.”  The  Hebrew  word 
translated  “perfect”  in  the  first  text,  Job  37 :  16,  means, 
absolutely  whole,  entire,  complete,  finished,  that  to 
which  nothing  can  be  added.  The  thought  is  that  from 
all  eternity  God's  knowledge  of  all  things  is  entire, 
complete,  so  that  nothing  whatever  can  be  ever  added 
to  it.  He  knows  everything  about  everything.  He 


GOD  IS  OMNISCIENT 


131 

knows  everything  in  all  its  height  and  depth  and  length 
and  breadth,  and  in  its  every  detail.  There  is  nothing 
on  earth  or  in  heaven,  nothing  in  those  five  hundred 
million  inconceivably  vast  stars,  nothing  in  the  mi¬ 
nutest  of  the  most  infinitesimal  atoms  or  electrons  of 
the  animalculas  and  bacteria,  that  even  the  most  power¬ 
ful  microscope  cannot  reveal,  that  God  does  not  al¬ 
ready  fully  know  in  its  every  detail. 

How  the  astronomers  have  labored  in  the  last  twenty- 
five  years  and  made  discoveries  that  make  the  astron¬ 
omy  of  earlier  generations  look  like  child’s  play !  How 
the  bacteriologists  of  the  last  ten  years  have  perfected 
their  apparatus,  and  dug,  and  dug,  and  dug,  and  dis¬ 
covered,  and  discovered,  and  discovered,  until  the 
most  advanced  bacteriology  of  only  a  few  years  ago 
looks  like  kindergarten  work!  But  God  knew  it  all 
an  eternity  ago  and  knows  infinitely  more  than  either 
astronomers  or  bacteriologists  have  discovered  even 
up  to  the  present  day.  Our  great  God,  Jehovah,  is 
^'perfect  in  knowledge.” 

The  Hebrew  word  translated  ^‘knowledge”  in  this 
passage  is  in  the  plural  and  should  be  translated 
^‘knowledges”  and  the  verse  declares  not  only  that 
God  “is  perfect  in  knowledge”  but  that  “He  is  perfect 
in  knowledges,”  that  is,  in  all  forms  of  knowledge. 
The  same  plural  form  is  used  in  the  Hebrew  Bible  in 
speaking  of  God  in  I  Sam.  2:3: 

“Talk  no  more  so  exceeding  proudly; 

Let  not  arrogancy  come  out  of  thy  mouth; 

For  Jehovah  is  a  God  of  knozdcdgesJ’ 

The  Hebrew  words  translated  “His  understanding 
is  infinite”  in  Ps.  147 :  5  literally  translated  would  read, 


132 


THE  GOD  OF  THE  BIBLE 


‘To  His  insight  (or  “discernment,”  or  “understand¬ 
ing”)  there  is  no  number,”  i.  e.,  God's  insight  is  beyond 
all  the  measure  and  comprehension  of  finite  beings. 


II.  Some  of  the  Details  of  What  God  Knows. 

Now  these  statements  that  we  have  considered  thus 
far  regarding  the  Infinite  Knowledge  and  Omniscience 
of  God  are  of  a  more  or  less  general  character,  and 
to  appreciate  and  to  feel  all  the  inspiration  and  glory 
of  this  great  truth  we  must  go  somewhat  into  the  de¬ 
tails  (which  the  Bible  itself  does). 

What  are  some  of  the  details  regarding  His  own 
Omniscience  which  God  reveals  in  the  Bible? 

I.  First  of  all  then,  let  us  turn  in  our  Bibles  to 
Prov.  15:3: 

“The  eyes  of  Jehovah  are  in  every  place; 

Keeping  watch  upon  the  evil  and  the  good.” 

Here  we  are  told  that  God  sees  everything  that 
occurs  in  every  place  and  “keeps  watch  upon  the  evil 
and  the  good.”  There  is  nothing  that  any  one  does 
in  any  part  of  the  universe,  there  is  not  one  slightest 
act,  good  or  evil,  that  God  does  not  see  it  and  know 
it  and  “keep  watch  upon”  it.  We  all  do  well  to  keep 
that  solemn  fact  in  mind  day  and  night,  and  to  re¬ 
member  that  we  cannot  hide  one  thing  we  do  from 
God,  no  matter  how  tightly  we  lock  our  doors  against 
every  intruder  and  how  dark  we  make  the  room.  As 
the  Psalmist  puts  it  in  another  place,  Ps.  139:11,  12: 

“If  I  say.  Surely  the  darkness  shall  cover 
[or,  ‘enshroud’]  me, 


GOD  IS  OMNISCIENT 


133 


And  the  light  about  me  shall  be  night; 

Even  the  darkness  hideth  Hot  from  Thee, 

But  the  night  shineth  as  the  day : 

The  darkness  and  the  light  are  both  alike  to 
Thee.” 

2.  Turn  now  to  two  passages,  one  in  the  Psalms 
and  one  in  Matthew,  an  utterance  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Himself,  and  put  them  together.  The  passage  in  the 
Psalms  is  Ps.  147:4: 

‘'He  counteth  the  number  of  the  stars; 

He  calleth  them  all  by  their  names.” 

The  second  passage  is  Matt.  10:29: 

“Are  not  two  sparrows  sold  for  a  penny  ?  and 
not  one  of  them  shall  fall  on  the  ground  with¬ 
out  your  Father.” 

Here  we  are  told  that  God  knows  everything  in 
Nature  from  the  remotest  stars  in  their  inconceivably 
stupendous  magnitude,  down  to  the  most  insignificant 
bird  in  our  gardens,  the  sparrow,  “not  one  (even) 
of  them  shall  fall  on  the  ground  without  your 
Father.” 

3.  Now  turn  to  another  Psalm  and  put  alongside 
of  it  a  passage  from  the  Book  of  Proverbs.  The  pas¬ 
sage  from  the  Psalms  is  Ps.  33 :  13-15  : 

“Jehovah  looketh  from  heaven; 

He  beholdeth  all  the  sons  of  men ; 

From  the  place  of  His  habitation  He  looketh 
upon  all  the  inhabitants  of  the  earth. 

He  that  fashioneth  the  hearts  of  them  all. 

That  considereth  all  their  works.” 

The  passage  from  Proverbs  to  compare  with  this 
is  Prov.  5:21: 


134 


THE  GOD  OF  THE  BIBLE 


“For  the  ways  of  men  are  before  the  eyes 
of  Jehovah; 

And  he  maketh  level  all  his  paths.” 

Here  we  are  told  that  God  “beholdeth  all  the  sons  of 
men”  and  “considereth  all  their  works,”  and  we  are 
further  told  that  “the  ways  of  men  are  before”  His 
eyes,  and  that  “He  pondereth  [or  maketh  level]  all  his 
paths  [or  goings].” 

4.  Now  turn  to  still  another  Psalm.  Ps.  139:2,  3: 

“Thou  knowest  my  downsitting  and  mine  up¬ 
rising; 

Thou  understandest  my  thought  afar  off. 

Thou  searchest  out  my  path  and  my  lying 
down. 

And  art  acquainted  with  all  my  ways.” 

Here  we  are  told  that  God  knows  all  man^s  deeds 
and  experiences.  Even  the  minutest  and  most  insig¬ 
nificant  details  of  our  daily  life  (even  our  “downsit¬ 
ting”  and  our  “uprising”)  are  known  to  God  and  are 
of  interest  to  Him. 

5.  Read  the  next  verse  of  the  same  Psalm,  5:4: 

“For  there  is  not  a  word  in  my  tongue. 

But,  lo,  O  Jehovah,  Thou  knowest  it  altor 
gether.” 

Here  we  are  told  that,  God  knoweth  all  man^s  words. 
Not  one  single  word  do  we  ever  utter  that  God  does 
not  know  it  and  understand  it  in  all  its  bearings.  You 
can  deceive  your  fellowmen  in  your  words,  but  you 
cannot  deceive  God. 

We  shall  come  back  again  later  to  this  Psalm,  but 
let  me  call  your  attention  now  to  what  a  wonderful 
revelation  of  the  Omniscience  and  Infinite  Wisdom 


GOD  IS  OMNISCIENT 


135 

of  God  we  have  in  this  old  Book  of  inspired  songs, 
written  some  of  them  twenty -nine  hundred  years  ago, 
and  all  of  them  nearly  that  long  ago.  Where  did  these 
Psalmists  learn  these  wonderful  truths  so  far  beyond 
their  time,  so  far  beyond  any  time  (including  our  own 
time)  except  in  as  far  as  men  have  learned  from  this 
old  Book?  There  is  but  one  rational  answer  to  that 
question,  namely,  God  supernaHirally  revealed  them  to 
them;  these  Psalms  are  ^'God-hreathedP 

6.  Now  turn  way  back  to  the  second  book  in  the 
Bible  to  Ex.  3:7: 

“And  Jehovah  said,  I  have  surely  seen  the 
affliction  of  my  people  that  are  in  Egypt,  and 
have  heard  their  cry  by  reason  of  their  task¬ 
masters  ;  for  I  know  their  sorrows/' 

Here  we  are  told  that  God  knows  the  sorrows  of 
His  people.  It  oftentimes  seems  as  if  God  did  not 
know  and  did  not  care.  It  must  have  seemed  so  some¬ 
times  to  Israel  in  Egypt.  But  God  did  know  and  God 
did  care ;  and  in  due  time  He  proved  that  He  knew  and 
that  He  cared.  And  just  so  to-day,  there  is  not  a 
sorrow  that  any  one  of  us  experiences  (no  matter 
how  hidden  it  may  be  from  the  eyes  of  men)  but  God 
knows  all  about  it  and  God  cares.  I  wish  we  had  the 
time  to  dwell  upon  all  the  comfort  and  the  encourage¬ 
ment  that  there  is  in  this  thought ;  but  we  must  pass  on. 

7.  Now  turn  back  again  to  Ps.  139:  i,  2: 

“O  Jehovah,  thou  hast  searched  me,  and 
known  me. 

Thou  knowest  my  downsitting  and  mine  up¬ 
rising  ; 


136 


THE  GOD  OF  THE  BIBLE 


Thou  understandest  my  thought  afar  off/^ 
Couple  with  this  I  Chron.  28:9: 

“And  thou,  Solomon  my  son,  know  thou  the 
God  of  thy  father,  and  serve  him  with  a  perfect 
heart  and  with  a  willing  mind:  for  Jehovah 
searcheth  all  hearts,  and  understandeth  all  the 
imaginations  of  the  thoughts/^ 

From  these  two  passages  we  learn  that,  God  un¬ 
derstandeth  all  the  imaginations  of  the  thoughts''  and 
that  He  '‘understandeth  our  thoughts  afar  off."  There 
is  not  one  single  thought  or  imagination  in  the  minds 
of  any  one  of  us  that  God  does  not  thoroughly  un¬ 
derstand,  and  He  understands  our  thoughts  even  be¬ 
fore  we  form  them  ourselves. 

8.  Now  put  together  a  verse  from  this  same  Psalm 
and  an  utterance  of  our  Lord  in  Matt.  10.  Read 
Ps.  139:3: 

“Thou  sear  chest  out  my  path  and  my  lying 
down, 

And  art  acquainted  with  all  my  ways." 

Now  read  Matt.  10:  29,  30: 

“Are  not  two  sparrows  sold  for  a  penny  ?  and 
not  one  of  them  shall  fall  on  the  ground  with¬ 
out  your  Father:  but  the  very  hairs  of  your 
head  are  all  numbered.” 

In  these  two  passages  we  are  brought  face  to  face 
with  the  great  truth  that,  God's  knowledge  of  us  as 
individuals  extends  to  the  minutest  particulars.  He 
is  “acquainted  with  all  our  ways”  and  the  very  “hairs 
of  our  head  are  all  numbered.”  There  is  in  these 
declarations  of  God’s  Word  much  food  for  reflection, 


GOD  IS  OMNISCIENT 


137 

there  is  in  them  both  warning  and  comfort;  but  we 
cannot  stop  to  dwell  upon  it  now. 

9.  There  is  a  remarkable  passage  regarding  God’s 
knowledge  in  Isa.  46:9,  10: 

“Remember  the  former  things  of  old:  for  I 
am  God,  and  there  is  none  else;  I  am  God,  and 
there  is  none  like  me;  declaring  the  end  from 
the  beginning,  and  from  ancient  times  things 
that  are  not  yet  done” 

Here  we  are  told  that,  God  knows  from  all  eternity 
what  shall  he  to  all  eternity.  The  same  marvelous 
truth  is  indicated  in  the  New  Testament  in  I  Pet.  i :  20, 
where  we  are  told  regarding  Jesus  Christ  that  He 
“was  foreknown  indeed  before  the  foundation  of  the 
world,  but  was  manifested  at  the  end  of  the  times  for 
your  sake.” 

10.  But  the  Bible  goes  even  beyond  that  in  its  de¬ 
tailed  statements  regarding  the  Omniscience  of  God. 
It  tells  us  over  and  over  again  that,  God  knows  from 
the  beginning  what  each  individual  man  will  do.  This 
we  see,  e.  g.,  in  Matt.  20:  17-19: 

“And  as  Jesus  was  going  up  to  Jerusalem, 
He  took  the  twelve  disciples  apart,  and  in  the 
way  He  said  unto  them.  Behold,  we  go  up  to 
Jerusalem;  and  the  Son  of  man  shall  be  de¬ 
livered  unto  the  chief  priests  and  scribes;  and 
they  shall  condemn  Him  to  death,  and  shall 
deliver  Him  unto  the  Gentiles  to  mock,  and  to 
scourge,  and  to  crucify:  and  the  third  day  He 
shall  be  raised  up.” 

Here  our  Lord  Jesus  declares  with  minute  detail 


THE  GOD  OF  THE  BIBLE 


138 

exactly  what  various  individuals  are  going  to  do  in 
connection  with  His  own  sufferings  and  death.  We 
find  the  same  remarkable  thought  way  back  in  the 
Old  Testament  in  Ex.  3:  19,  20: 

“And  I  know  that  the  king  of  Egypt  will 
not  give  you  leave  to  go,  no,  not  by  a  mighty 
hand.  And  I  will  put  forth  my  hand,  and 
smite  Egypt  with  all  my  wonders  which  I  will 
do  in  the  midst  thereof :  and  after  that  he  will 
let  you  go/^ 

We  see  the  same  thing  again  in  H  Kg.  7:1,  2,  in 
a  still  more  remarkable  passage  as  revealing  the  detailed 
knowledge  of  God  as  to  what  each  individual  will  do 
and  what  each  individual  will  experience  in  the  future. 

“And  Elisha  said.  Hear  ye  the  word  of  Je¬ 
hovah:  Thus  saith  Jehovah,  To-morrow  about 
this  time  shall  a  measure  of  fine  Hour  he  sold 
for  a  shekel,  and  two  measures  of  barley  for 
a  shekel,  in  the  gate  of  Samaria.  Then  a  cap¬ 
tain  on  whose  hand  the  king  leaned  answered 
the  man  of  God,  and  said.  Behold,  if  Jehovah 
should  make  windows  in  heaven  might  this 
thing  be?  And  he  said.  Behold,  thou  shalt  see 
it  with  thine  eyes,  but  shalt  not  eat  thereof.” 

Way  back  in  Ps.  41:9  we  see  the  action  of  Judas 
Iscariot  in  the  betrayal  of  his  Lord,  foreknown  by 
God  and  definitely  predicted  a  thousand  years  before 
it  was  actually  done.  Here  are  the  words: 

“Yea,  mine  own  familiar  friend,  in  whom  I 
trusted. 

Which  did  eat  of  my  bread, 

Hath  lifted  up  his  heel  against  me.” 


1 


GOD  IS  OMNISCIENT 


139 

Paul  declares  the  same  fact  regarding  God’s  knowl¬ 
edge  of  himself  in  Gal.  1:15,  16: 

“But  when  it  was  the  good  pleasure  of  God, 
who  separated  me,  even  from  my  mother’s 
womb,  and  called  me  through  His  grace,  to 
reveal  His  Son  in  me,  that  I  might  preach  Him 
among  the  Gentiles;  straightway  I  conferred 
not  with  flesh  and  blood.” 

And  the  same  thing  is  declared  regarding  God’s 
knowledge  of  each  one  of  the  elect  in  I  Pet.  1:2: 

“According  to  the  foreknowledge  of  God  the 
Father,  in  sanctification  of  the  Spirit,  unto 
obedience  and  sprinkling  of  the  blood  of  Jesus 
Christ :  Grace  to  you  and  peace  be  multiplied.” 

One  of  the  theories  most  fixed  and  immovable  in 
the  minds  of  the  so-called  “modern  Biblical  scholars,” 
the  “modern  critical  scholars,”  the  self-styled  “histor¬ 
ical  school  of  Biblical  Interpretation”  (though  its 
methods  are  in  reality  utterly  unhistorical  and  unsci¬ 
entific),  is  that  there  is  not  a  possibility  of  any  such 
thing  as  detailed  prediction  in  the  Bible.  But  this 
theory  loses  sight  utterly  of  two  firmly  established 
facts,  each  of  them  not  only  taught  in  the  Bible  but 
each  of  them  also  demonstrated  by  the  indubitable  facts 
in  the  case :  first,  that  God  is  Omniscient ;  and,  second, 
that  the  Bible  in  all  its  parts  is  a  revelation  from  this 
Omniscient  God.  If  it  were  not  for  the  deep-seated 
prejudice  of  the  natural  heart  against  all  things  that 
are  truly  supernatural,  these  self-confident  “modern 
Biblical  scholars”  would  be  the  laughing  stock  of  all 
fair-minded,  really  intelligent  and  clear-seeing  men. 
They  are  rendered  ridiculous  by  the  clearly  demon- 


140  THE  GOD  OF  THE  BIBLE 

strated  facts  in  the  case.  But  facts  have  no  weight 
with  these  dreamers,  theories  are  the  only  things  that 
interest  them;  and,  if  the  facts  do  not  tally  with  the 
theories,  so  much  the  worse  for  the  facts. 

II.  Just  once  more.  The  Bible  teaches  us  that.  The 
God  of  the  Bible  knows  from  all  eternity  the  whole 
plan  of  the  ages  and  each  man's  part  in  that  plan. 
This  we  are  told  time  and  time  again.  For  example, 
in  Eph.  1:9-12  we  read : 

“Having  made  known  unto  us  the  mystery 
of  his  will,  according  to  his  good  pleasure  which 
he  purposed  in  him  unto  a  dispensation  of  the 
fullness  of  the  times,  to  sum  up  all  things  in 
Christ,  the  things  in  the  heavens,  and  the  things 
upon  the  earth;  in  him,  I  say,  in  whom  also 
we  were  made  a  heritage,  having  been  fore¬ 
ordained  according  to  the  purpose  of  him  who 
worketh  all  things  after  the  counsel  of  his  will; 
to  the  end  that  we  should  be  unto  the  praise  of 
his  glory,  we  who  had  before  hoped  in 
Christ.’’ 

In  the  third  chapter  of  the  same  book,  Eph.  3:4-11, 
we  read : 

“Whereby,  when  ye  read,  ye  can  perceive  my 
understanding  in  the  mystery  of  Christ;  which 
in  other  generations  was  not  made  known  unto 
the  sons  of  men,  as  it  hath  now  been  revealed 
unto  his  holy  apostles  and  prophets  in  the 
Spirit ;  to  wit,  that  the  Gentiles  are  fellow-heirs, 
and  fellow-members  of  the  body,  and  fellow- 
partakers  of  the  promise  in  Christ  Jesus 
through  the  gospel,  whereof  I  was  made  a  min- 


GOD  IS  OMNISCIENT 


141 

ister,  according  to  the  gift  of  that  grace  of 
God  which  was  given  me  according  to  the  work¬ 
ing  of  his  power.  Unto  me  whe  am  less 
than  the  least  of  all  saints  was  this  grace  given, 
to  preach  unto  the  Gentiles  the  unsearchable 
riches  of  Christ;  and  to  make  all  men  see  what 
is  the  dispensation  of  the  mystery  which  from 
all  ages  hath  been  hid  in  God  Who  created  all 
things;  to  the  intent  that  now  unto  the  prin¬ 
cipalities  and  the  powers  in  the  heavenly  places 
might  be  made  known  through  the  church  the 
manifold  wisdom  of  God,  according  to  the  eter^ 
nal  purpose  which  He  purposed  in  Christ  Jesus 
our  Lord/' 

We  find  the  same  truth  again  more  briefly  expressed 
in  Col.  1 :  25,  26 : 

“Whereof  I  was  made  a  minister  according 
to  the  dispensation  of  God  which  was  given  me 
to  you-ward,  to  fulfill  the  word  of  God,  even 
the  mystery  which  hath  been  hid  for  ages  and 
generations;  but  now  hath  been  manifested  to 
his  saints/' 

We  see  clearly  in  these  passages  that.  The  whole 
plan  of  the  ages  and  each  man's  part  in  it  has  been 
known  to  God  from  all  eternity.  There  are  no  after 
thoughts  with  God.  He  knows  and  plans  everything 
from  the  beginning.  Well  may  we  exclaim: 

“O  the  depth  of  the  riches  both  of  the  wisdom 
and  the  knowledge  of  God!  how  unsearchable 
are  his  judgments,  and  his  ways  past  tracing 
out!”  (Rom.  II :  33). 


142  THE  GOD  OF  THE  BIBLE 

III,  The  Same  Omniscience  Thjat  Is  Ascribed  to  the 
Father  Ascribed  to  Jesus  Christ  and  to  the 
Holy  Spirit. 

Before  we  leave  this  inexhaustible  subject  of  the 
Omniscience  of  God  as  set  forth  in  the  Bible,  let  me 
call  your  attention  to  the  fact  that,  The  same  Omnis¬ 
cience  that  is  ascribed  to  God  the  Father,  is  also  ascribed 
to  Jesus  Christ  the  Son,  and  to  the  Holy  Spirit. 

1.  We  see  this  in  regard  to  our  Lord  Jesus  over  and 
over  again.  We  read,  e.  g.,  in  Jno.  4:16,  19  that, 
Jesus  knew  men's  lives,  even  their  secret  history.  We 
see  from  Mk.  2  :  8  and  Luke  5  :  22  and  Jno.  2 :  24,  25 
that,  Jesus  knew  the  secret  thoughts  of  men;  that  He 
knew  all  men;  that  He  knew  what  was  in  man. 

We  see  from  Jno.  6 : 64  that,  Jesus  knew  from  the 
beginning  that  Judas  would  betray  Him.  Here  is 
what  John  says,  ''Jesus  knew  from  the  beginning  who 
they  were  that  believed  not,  and  who  should  betray 
Him.”  Not  only  man’s  present  thoughts  but  his  future 
choices  were  all  known  to  Him.  Simon  Peter  specifi¬ 
cally  declared  in  Jno.  21:17  that  Jesus  knew  ‘‘all 
things”  and  the  whole  company  of  the  disciples  de¬ 
clared  in  Jno.  16:30: 

“Now  are  we  sure  that  thou  knowest  all 
things." 

And  Paul  declares  in  Col.  2:2,  3,  that  “in  Christ” 
“are  hidden  all  the  treasures  of  wisdom  and  knowl¬ 
edge.” 

2.  That  the  Holy  Spirit  also  is  Omniscient,  that 
He  knows  all  things,  is  plainly  declared  in  I  Cor.  2 :  10, 
II ;  Jno.  14:  26;  Jno.  16:12,  13. 


GOD  IS  OMNISCIENT 


143 


O  wondrous  and  glorious  Triune  God  of  the  Bible; 
God  the  Father,  God  the  Son,  and  God  the  Holy 
Spirit!  Thou  knowest  all  things,  Thou  art  “perfect 
in  knowledge”  and  “infinite  in  understanding.”  We 
worship  Thee,  and  we  also  rejoice  in  Thee,  and  rest 
in  Thee,  knowing  that  Thou  wilt  never  be  taken  by 
surprise,  or  meet  any  emergency  which  Thou  hast  not 
foreknown  from  all  eternity  and  for  which  Thou  art 
not  fully  prepared.  We  do  not  know  the  future,  but 
Thou  dost.  Things  look  very  dark  to  us  and  full  of 
foreboding  and  overwhelming  disaster  in  business,  and 
politics,  and  in  international  affairs,  but  Thou  hast 
known  all  these  present  perils  from  all  eternity  and 
hast  fully  provided  for  them  all,  and  so  we  know  that 
the  ultimate  outcome  (however  dark  the  present  out¬ 
look  may  seem)  will  be  full  of  blessing  and  of  glory. 
Hallelujah!  Surely  it  “is  eternal  life”  “to  know  thee 
the  only  true  God,  and  Him  whom  thou  didst  send, 
even  Jesus  Christ”  (Jno.  17:3).  Glorious  God  of 
the  Bible! 


CHAPTER  VIII 


GOD  IS  HOLY 

In  the  seven  preceding  chapters  we  have  seen 
that  in  the  Bible,  even  in  its  earliest  books,  books 
written  nearly  thirty-four  hundred  years  ago,  we  have 
set  before  us  a  conception  of  God  that  is  more  pro¬ 
found,  more  exalted,  more  awe-inspiring,  more  glad¬ 
dening  and  heart  thrilling  and  ennobling  than  is  to  be 
found  in  any  or  in  all  of  the  profoundest  philosophies 
of  the  past  or  even  of  the  present  day,  except  in  so 
far  as  the  philosophies  of  the  present  day  have  bor¬ 
rowed  their  conception  of  God  from  this  old,  old  Book, 
the  Bible.  And  we  have  also  seen  that  there  is  not 
to  be  found  outside  of  the  Bible  in  all  the  literature 
of  all  nations  and  of  all  ages,  anything  that  even  ap¬ 
proaches  the  Bible  statements  in  beauty,  simplicity, 
grandeur,  splendor  and  sublimity  of  expression.  And 
we  have  seen  that  the  only  explanation  that  has  even 
the  slightest  semblance  of  reasonableness  of  these  two 
unquestionable  facts  is  that  the  Bible,  even  in  its  earli¬ 
est  portions,  is  a  direct  and  supernatural  revelation 
from  God,  and  that  these  earliest  Bible  writers  wrote 
the  very  words  found  in  the  Holy  Scriptures  as  the 
Holy  Spirit  moved  them  and  impelled  them  and  em¬ 
powered  them  to  write,  and  that  these  earliest  portions 
of  the  Holy  Scriptures  beyond  the  possibility  of  any 
intelligent  and  honest  question  were  as  Paul  more  than 

144 


GOD  IS  HOLY 


145 

eighteen  hundred  and  fifty  years  ago  declared  them  to 
be,  “God-breathed”  (I  Tim.  3:  16). 

But  it  is  only  when  we  come  to  the  consideration 
of  the  moral  character  of  “the  God  of  the  Bible”  that 
we  see  to  the  full  extent  the  immeasurable  superiority 
of  that  conception  of  God  that  the  Bible  presents  to 
all  representations  of  God  found  elsewhere.  And  to¬ 
day  we  begin  the  study  of  the  moral  character  of  the 
God  of  the  Bible. 

Our  particular  subject  in  this  chapter  is,  The  God 
of 'the  Bible;  God  is  Holy.  I  have  ten  texts.  You 
will  find  the  first  text  in  one  of  the  earlier  books  of 
the  Bible,  the  book  of  Joshua,  nearly  as  old  as  the 
oldest  books  in  the  Bible,  for  Joshua  was  for  a  large 
part  of  his  life  a  contemporary  of  Moses.  The  text 
is  Josh.  24:  19 : 

“And  Joshua  said  unto  the  people.  Ye  cannot 
serve  Jehovah;  for  He  is  a  holy  God;  He  is  a 
jealous  God;  He  will  not  forgive  your  trans¬ 
gression  nor  your  sins.” 

You  will  find  the  second  text  in  the  book  of  Psalms, 
Ps.  22 :  3  : 

''But  Thou  art  holy, 

O  Thou  that  inhabitest  the  praises  of  Israel.” 

The  third  text  is  again  from  the  Book  of  Psalms, 
Ps.  99:5,  9: 

“Exalt  ye  Jehovah  our  God, 

And  worship  at  His  footstool : 

Holy  is  He. 

Exalt  ye  Jehovah  our  God, 

And  worship  at  His  holy  hill; 

For  Jehovah  our  God  is  HolyJ* 


146  THE  GOD  OF  THE  BIBLE 

The  fourth  text  is  from  the  book  of  Isaiah,  Isa. 
S:i6: 

‘‘But  Jehovah  of  hosts  is  exalted  in  justice, 

And  God  the  Holy  One  is  sanctified  in  right¬ 
eousness.” 

The  fifth  text  is  also  from  the  book  of  Isaiah,  Isa. 
6:  1-3: 

“In  the  year  that  King  Uzziah  died,  I  saw 
the  Lord  sitting  upon  a  throne,  high  and  lifted 
up,  and  His  train  filled  the  temple.  Above  Him 
stood  the  seraphim :  each  one  had  six  wings ; 
with  twain  he  covered  his  face ;  and  with  twain 
he  covered  his  feet,  and  with  twain  he  did  fly. 
And  one  cried  unto  another,  and  said.  Holy, 
holy^  holy,  is  Jehovah  of  hosts,  the  whole  earth 
is  full  of  His  glory.” 

The  sixth  text  is  from  the  same  book,  Isa.  57:  15: 

“For  thus  saith  the  high  and  lofty  One  that 
inhabiteth  eternity,  whose  name  is  Holy:  I 
dwell  in  the  high  and  holy  place,  with  him  also 
that  is  of  a  contrite  and  humble  spirit,  to  re¬ 
vive  the  spirit  of  the  humble,  and  to  revive  the 
heart  of  the  contrite.” 

The  seventh  text  is  taken  from  our  Lord’s  own 
prayer  the  night  before  His  crucifixion,  Jno.  17:11: 

“And  I  am  no  more  in  the  world,  and  these 
are  in  the  world,  and  I  come  to  thee.  Holy 
Father,  keep  them  in  Thy  name  which  thou  hast 
given  me,  that  they  may  be  one,  even  as  we 
are  one.” 

The  eighth  text  is  I  Pet.  i :  15,  16: 

“But  like  as  He  which  called  you  is  holy,  be 


GOD  IS  HOLY 


147 


ye  yourselves  also  holy  in  all  manner  of  living; 
because  it  is  written,  Ye  shall  be  holy;  for  I 
am  holyf' 

The  ninth  text  is  Heb.  12:28,  29: 

^‘Wherefore,  receiving  a  kingdom  that  can¬ 
not  be  shaken,  let  us  have  grace,  whereby  we 
may  offer  service  well-pleasing  to  God  with 
reverence  and  awe:  for  our  God  is  a  consum¬ 
ing  fire.” 

Our  tenth  and  last  text  is  I  Jno.  1:5: 

“And  this  is  the  message  which  we  have  heard 
from  Him,  and  announce  unto  you,  that  God 
is  light,  and  in  Him  is  no  darkness  at  all.” 

/.  God  Is  Holy. 

In  eight  of  these  ten  passages  from  the  Bible  the 
plain  and  direct  declaration  is  made  that  God  is  Holy, 
and  the  ninth  and  tenth  texts  set  forth  this  same  great 
truth  in  remarkably  significant  and  suggestive  figures. 
The  tenth  text  contains  one  of  the  most  illuminating 
and  awe-inspiring  sentences  ever  written,  “God  is  light, 
and  in  Him  is  no  darkness  at  all.”  These  words  set 
forth  the  truth  that  God  is  not  only  holy  but  that  He 
is  absolutely  holy,  “in  Him  is  no  darkness  at  all.” 

Isa.  57:15  also  deserves  especial  notice: 

“For  thus  saith  the  high  and  lofty  One  that 
inhabiteth  eternity,  whpse  name  is  Holy” 

Here  we  are  told  that  God’s  “name  is  Holy.”  Now 
in  Bible  usage  the  name  stands  for  the  character  as 
revealed.  So  the  words  ''His  name  is  Holy”  mean 
that  Holiness  is  the  essential  moral  nature  of  God. 


THE  GOD  OF  THE  BIBLE 


148 

Holy  is  what  Jehovah,  the  God  of  the  Bible  is  in  His 
inmost,  essential  moral  being.  Jehovah,  the  God  of 
the  Bible,  is  called  ''the  Holy  One''  about  thirty  times 
in  this  one  book  of  the  Bible  from  which  the  verse 
is  taken,  Isaiah.  He  is  also  so  called  in  both  Jeremiah 
and  Ezekiel,  and  elsewhere  as  well. 

In  the  New  Testament  God  the  Son  is  spoken  of 
as  "the  Holy  One"  and  the  Third  Person  of  the  Trin¬ 
ity  is  constantly  spoken  of  as  “The  Holy  Spirit.’’ 
The  whole  Bible,  both  the  Old  Testament  and  the 
New  Testament,  is  dominated  by  one  thought,  the 
thought  of  the  Infinite  Holiness  of  God. 

IL  What  Does  "Holy"  Mean? 

This  brings  us  to  the  important  question,  What  does 
the  Word  "Holy"  Mean  in  Bible  Usage?  This  ques¬ 
tion  is  plainly  answered  in  many  places  in  the  Bible. 
Let  me  give  you  two  illustrative  examples  that  any  one 
can  easily  understand.  The  first  is  found  in  Lev.  1 1 : 
43-45 : 

“Ye  shall  not  make  yourselves  abominable 
with  any  creeping  thing  that  creepeth,  neither 
shall  ye  make  yourselves  unclean  with  them, 
that  ye  should  be  defiled  thereby.  For  I  am 
Jehovah,  your  God :  sanctify  yourselves  there¬ 
fore,  and  be  ye  holy;  for  I  am  holy:  neither 
shall  ye  defile  yourselves  with  any  manner  of 
creeping  thing  that  moveth  upon  the  earth. 
For  I  am  Jehovah  that  brought  you  up  out  of 
the  land  of  Egypt,  to  be  your  God:  ye  shall 
therefore  be  holy  for  I  am  holy.” 


GOD  IS  HOLY 


149 


It  is  evident  from  these  words  that  ‘"Holy”  means 
free  from  all  defilement,  absolutely  pure.  The  words 
^^God  is  Holy”  mean,  God  is  absolutely  pure.  The 
same  thought  is  set  forth  in  a  little  different  way  in 
Deut.  23 :  14 : 

“For  Jehovah  thy  God  walketh  in  the  midst 
of  thy  camp,  to  deliver  thee,  and  to  give  up 
thine  enemies  before  thee;  therefore  shall  thy 
camp  be  holy:  that  He  may  not  see  an  unclean 
thing  in  thee,  and  turn  away  from  thee.” 

This  same  thought  as  to  what  Holiness  means,  and 
the  truth  that  God  is  absolutely  and  infinitely  Holy,  is 
set  forth  in  what  is  perhaps  the  highest  expression  of 
this  great  truth  of  the  Infinite  Holiness  of  God  that 
is  to  be  found  in  the  Bible,  a  passage  to  which  I  have 
already  referred,  I  Jno.  1:5: 

“God  is  light,  and  in  Him  is  no  darkness 
at  all.” 

The  entire  Mosaic  system  of  washings;  divisions  of 
the  tabernacle;  division  of  the  people  into  ordinary 
Israelites,  Levites,  ordinary  Priests,  and  High-Priests 
who  were  permitted  different  degrees  of  approach  to 
God  under  strictly  defined  conditions;  the  insistence 
upon  sacrifice  with  the  shedding  of  the  blood  and  giv¬ 
ing  up  of  the  life  of  the  substitute  sacrifice  as  the  one 
always  necessary  medium  of  approach  to  God;  God’s 
directions  to  Moses  in  Ex.  3 :  3,  5  to  “Draw  not  nigh 
hither:  put  off  thy  shoes  from  off  thy  feet,  for  the 
place  whereon  thou  standest  is  holy  ground,”  and  to 
Joshua  in  Josh.  5:15:  “Put  off  thy  shoe  from  off  thy 
foot;  for  the  place  whereon  thou  standest  is  holy”; 
the  punishment  of  Uzziah  in  II  Chr.  26:  12-26;  the 


THE  GOD  OF  THE  BIBLE 


strict  orders  to  Israel  in  regard  to  approaching  Sinai 
when  Jehovah  came  down  upon  it;  the  doom  of  Korah, 
Dathan,  and  Abiram  because  of  their  presumption  in 
approaching  God  in  their  own  way,  as  recorded  in 
Num.  i6:  1-33;  and  the  destruction  of  Nadab  and 
Abihu  because  they  dared  to  draw  nigh  to  God  in  an¬ 
other  way  than  He  had  prescribed  (Lev.  10:  1*2);  all 
these  were  intended  to  teach  and  emphasize  and  burn 
into  the  minds  and  hearts  of  God’s  people,  Israel,  the 
fundamental  truth,  the  great  foundation  truth,  that 
God  is  Holy,  unapproachably  Holy.  The  truth  that 
God  is  Holy  is  the  one  great  foundation  truth  of  the 
Bible,  of  the  Old  Testament  and  of  the  New  Testa¬ 
ment,  of  the  Jewish  religion  and  of  the  Christian  re¬ 
ligion,  which  two  religions  are  essentially  one. 

111.  How  the  Holiness  of  God  is  Manifested. 

Now  let  us  look  at  what  the  Bible  teaches  us,  as  to 
How  the  Holiness  of  God  is  Manifested. 

I.  First  of  all.  The  Holiness  of  God  manifests 
itself  in  an  intense  hatred  of  sin.  This  is  set  forth  in 
Hab.  1 :  12,  13 : 

“Art  not  thou  from  everlasting  O  Jehovah 
my  God,  my  Holy  One?  we  shall  not  die.  O 
Jehovah,  Thou  hast  ordained  him  for  judgment; 
and  Thou,  O  Rock,  hast  established  him  for 
correction.  Thou  that  art  of  purer  eyes  than 
to  behold  evil,  and  that  canst  not  look  on  per¬ 
verseness.^^ 

We  see  the  same  great  truth  set  forth  way  back  in 
the  first  book  in  the  Bible,  in  Gen.  6:5,  6,  7 : 


GOD  IS  HOLY 


^51 

*‘And  Jehovah  saw  that  the  wickedness  of 
man  was  great  in  the  earth,  and  that  every 
imagination  of  the  thoughts  of  his  heart  was 
only  evil  continually.  And  it  repented  Jehovah 
that  He  had  made  man  on  the  earth,  and  it 
grieved  Him  at  His  heart.  And  Jehovah  said, 
I  will  destroy  man  whom  I  have  created  from 
the  face  of  the  ground.” 

It  was  the  Infinite  Holiness  of  God,  His  intense 
hatred  of  sin,  that  necessitated  the  flood  when  the 
human  race  had  become  incurably  bad.  And  so  the 
Adamic  race  as  a  whole  was  destroyed  and  a  new  be¬ 
ginning  made. 

The  same  truth  is  also  set  forth  in  Deut.  25 :  16: 

“For  all  that  do  such  things,  even  all  that 
do  unrighteously ,  are  an  abomination  unto  Je¬ 
hovah  thy  God.” 

And  in  Prov.  15:9,  26,  where  Solomon  declares 
that  both  “the  way  of  the  wicked”  and  the  “thoughts 
of  the  wicked”  are  an  abomination  to  Jehovah. 

2.  In  the  second  place,  The  Holiness  of  God  mani¬ 
fests  itself  in  intense  delight  in  righteousness  and  in 
holiness.  We  will  take  time  for  but  one  passage  illus¬ 
trative  of  this  thought.  It  is  the  last  half  of  the  verse 
just  referred  to,  Prov.  15:9: 

“The  way  of  the  wicked  is  an  abomination 
unto  Jehovah :  but  He  loveth  him  that  followeth 
after  righteousness.^^ 

While  sin  in  all  its  forms  moves  the  holy  heart  of 
Jehovah  with  intense  loathing,  righteousness  on  the 
other  hand  moves  the  holy  heart  of  Jehovah  with  in¬ 
tense  joy  and  delight. 


152 


THE  GOD  OF  THE  BIBLE 


In  Lev.  20 : 26,  Jehovah  tells  Israel  that  He  had 
severed  them  from  all  other  people  for  the  express  pur¬ 
pose  that  they  should  be  “holy  unto  Him  (me),”  and 
thus  (i.  e.,  by  being  holy)  to  “be”  His  very  own  (“be 
mine”). 

3.  In  the  third  place,  The  Holiness  of  God  mani¬ 
fests  itself  in  His  never  doing  wickedness  or  iniquity. 
This  thought  is  set  forth  in  the  inspired  message  of 
Elihu  as  recorded  in  Job  34:10: 

“Therefore  hearken  unto  me,  ye  men  of  un¬ 
derstanding  : 

Far  be  it  from  God,  that  He  should  do 
wickedness ; 

And  from  the  Almighty  that  He  should  com¬ 
mit  iniquity.” 

4.  In  the  fourth  place.  The  Holiness  of  God  is  man¬ 
ifested  in  the  separation  of  the  sinner  from  Himself. 
This  thought  is  set  forth  in  a  passage  in  Isaiah  that 
is  very  familiar  to  us  all,  Isa.  59:  i,  2: 

“Behold,  Jehovah’s  hand  is  not  shortened, 
that  it  cannot  save;  neither  his  ear  heavy,  that 
it  cannot  hear:  but  your  iniquities  have  sepa¬ 
rated  between  you  and  your  God,  and  your  sins 
have  hid  His  face  from  you,  so  that  He  will 
not  hear.^^ 

It  is  because  of  this  necessary  manifestation  of  the 
Holiness  of  the  true  God  (the  God  of  the  Bible),  the 
separating  the  sinner  from  Himself  because  His  Holi¬ 
ness  requires  it,  that  an  atonement  by  the  shedding  of 
the  blood  of  a  sufficient  substitute  becomes  necessary 
if  there  is  to  be  any  approach  to  God  on  the  part  of 


GOD  IS  HOLY 


153 

the  sinner.  This  great  fundamental  truth  is  set  forth 
in  Eph.  2:13: 

“But  now  in  Christ  Jesus  ye  that  once  were 
far  off  are  made  nigh  in  the  hlood  of  Christ/^ 
And  in  Heb.  10:  10: 

“By  which  will  (that  is  the  will  of  God)  we 
have  been  sanctified  through  the  offering  of  the 
body  of  Jesus  Christ,  once  for  all.” 

Our  Lord’s  own  words  set  forth  the  same  funda¬ 
mental  truth,  in  Matt.  20:28: 

“The  Son  of  man  came  not  to  be  ministered 
unto,  but  to  minister,  and  to  give  His  life  a 
ransom  for  many/' 

And  in  Jno.  14:6: 

“I  am  the  way,  the  truth,  and  the  life:  no 
one  cometh  unto  the  Father,  hut  through  me/' 
All  approach  to  a  holy  God  (such  as  the  God  of 
the  Bible  is)  on  the  part  of  sinful  men  (such  as  we 
all  are),  must  be  on  the  ground  of  shed  blood.  The 
atonement  which  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  made  by  His 
death  on  the  cross  has  its  first  and  deepest  demand  in 
the  holiness  of  God.  Any  doctrine  of  the  atonement 
that  sees  its  need  only  in  the  necessity  that  men  may 
be  influenced  by  a  mighty  motive  (the  so-called  “Moral 
Influence  Theory  of  the  Atonement”),  or  in  the  neces¬ 
sities  of  governmental  expediency  (the  so-called  “Gov¬ 
ernmental  Theory  of  the  Atonement”)  does  not  go  to 
the  root  of  things.  The  first  and  fundamental  reason 
why  “apart  from  shedding  of  blood  there  is  no  remis¬ 
sion,”  is  because  God  is  Holy  and  sin  must  be  covered 
before  there  can  be  fellowship  between  God  and  the 
sinner.  Nothing  can  cover  sin  from  the  holy  gaze  and 


THE  GOD  OF  THE  BIBLE 


154 

the  intense  disapprobation  of  God  except  the  atoning 
blood  of  Jesus  Christ, 

5.  In  the  fifth  place,  The  Holiness  of  God  manifests 
itself  in  the  punishment  of  the  sinner.  The  Bible  de¬ 
clares  this  over  and  over  again  in  direct  and  explicit 
statements  and  by  illustrative  examples.  Look  at  three 
passages.  First  Ex.  34:6,  7 : 

'‘And  Jehovah  passed  by  before  him  and  pro¬ 
claimed,  Jehovah,  Jehovah  God,  merciful  and 
gracious,  slow  to  anger,  and  abounding  in  lov¬ 
ingkindness  and  truth;  keeping  lovingkindness 
for  thousands,  forgiving  iniquity  and  trans¬ 
gression  and  sin;  and  that  will  by  no  means 
clear  the  guilty;  visiting  the  iniquity  of  the 
fathers  upon  the  children,  and  upon  the  chil¬ 
dren’s  children,  upon  the  third  and  upon  the 
fourth  generation.” 

Now  look  at  Gen.  6 :  5-7 : 

"And  Jehovah  saw  that  the  wickedness  of 
man  was  great  in  the  earth,  and  that  every  im¬ 
agination  of  the  thoughts  of  his  heart  was  only 
evil  continually.  And  it  repented  Jehovah  that 
he  had  made  man  on  the  earth,  and  it  grieved 
him  at  his  heart.  And  Jehovah  said,  I  will 
destroy  man  whom  I  have  created  from  the 
face  of  the  ground;  both  man,  and  beast,  and 
creeping  thing,  and  birds  of  the  heavens;  for 
it  repent eth  me  that  I  have  made  them.” 

Now  just  one  more  passage  as  setting  forth  this 
manifestation  of  the  Holiness  of  God,  Ps.  5:4-6: 

"Thou  art  not  a  God  that  hath  pleasure  in 
wickedness : 


GOD  IS  HOLY 


155 


Evil  shall  not  sojourn  with  thee. 

The  arrogant  shall  not  stand  in  thy  sight : 

Thou  hatest  all  workers  of  iniquity. 

Thou  wilt  destroy  them  that  speak  lies: 

Jehovah  abhors  the  bloodthirsty  and  deceit ftd 
man.” 

According  to  the  Bible  (and  according  to  reason 
and  common  sense  also)  God  does  not  punish  the 
sinner  merely  for  the  sinner’s  own  good.  God  pun¬ 
ishes  the  sinner  because  God  is  a  holy  being  and  there¬ 
fore  hates  sin.  God’s  Holiness  and  hatred  of  sin,  like 
every  attribute  of  His,  is  real,  it  is  a  living  thing,  it 
is  active,  and  not  dormant,  and  it  must  manifest  itself. 
God’s  holy  wrath  at  sin  must  strike.  This  truth  is 
set  forth  in  a  remarkable  way  in  Isa.  53:6.  Let  me 
give  you  a  literal  translation  of  the  Hebrew : 

“All  we  like  sheep  have  gone  astray;  we  have 
turned  every  one  to  his  own  way ;  and  Jehovah 
hath  made  to  strike  on  him  the  iniquity  of  us 
all.” 

Any  view  of  the  punishment  of  sin  that  leaves  out 
the  thought  of  its  being  an  expression  of  God’s  holy 
hatred  of  sin,  is  not  only  unbiblical  but  shallow  and 
dishonoring  to  God.  God  is  Holy,  infinitely  Holy, 
therefore  He  infinitely  hates  sin.  We  ourselves  in  our 
own  feelings  get  a  glimpse  at  times  of  what  God’s 
holy  hatred  of  sin  must  be  in  our  own  burning  indig¬ 
nation  at  some  enormous  iniquity.  But  we  must  re¬ 
member  that  God  is  infinitely  Holy,  and  therefore 
God’s  wrath  at  the  smallest  sin  is  infinitely  greater 
than  ours  at  the  greatest  moral  enormity.  It  is  true, 
as  we  shall  see  later,  that  God  is  love;  but  God’s  love 


THE  GOD  OF  THE  BIBLE 


156 

is  not  of  the  sickly,  sentimental  sort,  the  morally  putrid 
sort,  that  sends  costly  bouquets  and  tender  missives 
to  moral  monsters,  as  some  of  our  Universalist  theo¬ 
logians  and  New  Theology  exponents  would  have  us 
think.  No,  thank  God!  “Our  God  is  a  consuming 
fire.’^  God’s  love  toward  sinners  will  never  be  under¬ 
stood  and  appreciated  until  it  is  seen  in  the  white  light 
of  His  blazing  wrath  at  sin. 

6.  We  come  now  to  the  most  amazing  and  most 
decisive  manifestation  of  the  Holiness  of  God.  The 
Holiness  of  God  manifested  itself  in  His  making  an 
infinite  sacrifice  to  save  others  from  sin  which  He 
hates  unto  holiness  which  He  loves.  Let  me  give  you 
just  two  passages  from  the  Word  of  God  that  set 
forth  this  greatest  thought  of  all  regarding  the  way 
in  which  God’s  Holiness  is  manifested,  a  thought  which 
we  owe  entirely  to  the  Bible,  and  of  which  there  is 
not  the  slightest  suggestion  in  all  the  philosophers, 
poets,  thinkers  and  mystics  of  all  nations  and  all  ages, 
except  as  they  have  borrowed  it  from  the  Bible.  The 
first  passage  is  one  of  the  most  familiar  verses  in  the 
Bible,  Jno.  3:16: 

“For  God  so  loved  the  world,  that  He  gave 
His  only  begotten  Son,  that  whosoever  belie v- 
eth  on  Him  should  not  perish,  but  have  eternal 
life.” 

The  second  passage  is  I  Pet.  3:18: 

“Because  Christ  also  suffered  for  sins  once, 
the  righteous  for  the  unrighteous,  that  he  might 
bring  us  to  God.^^ 

The  death  of  Jesus  Christ  on  the  cross  of  Calvary 
was  not  merely  a  manifestation  of  the  amazing  and 


GOD  IS  HOLY 


157 

infinite  love  of  God;  it  was  also  a  manifestation  of 
the  amazing  and  infinite  Holiness  of  God.  That  fact 
comes  out  in  that  little  word  “so”  in  Jno.  3:16:  “God 
so  loved  the  world,  that  He  gave  His  only  begotten 
Son,  that  whosoever  believeth  on  Him  should  not  perish 
but  have  eternal  life.”  That  word  “so”  sets  forth  not 
merely  the  greatness  of  God’s  love,  in  that  it  did  not 
draw  back  even  from  the  sacrifice  of  His  very  best, 
His  only  begotten  Son,  to  save  us:  it  sets  forth  also 
the  quality  of  His  love,  the  fact  that  it  was  a  holy 
love,  a  love  that  would  not  and  could  not  pardon  sin, 
which  was  infinitely  hateful  to  God,  until  sin  had  been 
atoned  for  and  covered  from  His  holy  gaze  by  atoning 
blood,  even  the  blood  of  the  Son  of  His  eternal  love. 
I  would  that  we  had  time  to  stop  here  and  ponder  and 
wonder  and  adore,  but  we  must  pass  on.  I  leave  this 
amazing  truth  to  each  one  of  you  to  ponder  it  alone. 

IV.  Practical  Inferences  from  the  Truth  that  God 
Is  Holy. 

Before  we  close  let  me  call  your  attention  to  some 
inferences  of  immense  practical  importance  from  this 
great  fundamental  truth  about  God,  that  God  is  Holy, 
that  “God  is  light,  and  in  Him  is  no  darkness  at  all.” 

I.  The  first  great  practical  inference  from  the  fact 
that  God  is  infinitely  Holy  is  that.  We  must  draw  nigh 
to  God  zvith  awe.  This  thought  is  set  forth  time  and 
time  again  in  the  Bible.  For  example,  we  read  in 
Heb.  12 :  28,  29 : 

“Wherefore,  receiving  a  kingdom  that  can¬ 
not  be  shaken,  let  us  have  grace,  whereby  we 


158  THE  GOD  OF  THE  BIBLE 

may  offer  service  well-pleasing  to  God  with 
reverence  and  awe:  for  our  God  is  a  consum¬ 
ing  fire/^ 

We  see  it  also  way  back  in  Ex.  3:4,  5 : 

“And  when  Jehovah  saw  that  he  (that  is, 
Moses)  turned  aside  to  see,  God  called  unto 
him  out  of  the  midst  of  the  bush,  and  said, 
Moses,  Moses.  And  he  said,  Here  am  1.  And 
He  said  (that  is,  God  said).  Draw  not  nigh 
hither :  put  off  thy  shoes  from  off  thy  feet,  for 
the  place  whereon  thou  standest  is  holy  ground.^^ 

Perhaps  the  most  remarkable  passage  that  sets  forth 
this  truth  that  Jehovah,  the  God  of  the  Bible,  is  of 
such  a  character  that  we  must  draw  nigh  to  Him  with 
awe  is  Isa.  6:  1-3 : 

“In  the  year  that  king  Uzziah  died,  I  saw 
the  Lord  sitting  upon  a  throne,  high  and  lifted 
up,  and  his  train  filled  the  temple.  Above  him 
stood  the  seraphim :  each  one  had  six  wings ; 
with  twain  he  covered  his  face ;  and  with  twain 
he  covered  his  feet,  and  with  twain  he  did  fly. 
And  one  cried  unto  another,  and  said,  Holy, 
holy,  holy,  is  Jehovah  of  hosts,  the  whole  earth 
is  full  of  His  glory.” 

Here  we  see  that  even  the  holy  “seraphim”  (“sera¬ 
phim”  is  a  Hebrew  word  and  means  “burning  ones,” 
that  is,  burning  in  their  own  intense  holiness)  covered 
their  faces  and  their  feet  in  Jehovah’s  presence.  They 
had  four  wings  for  worship  but  only  two  for  service. 
Of  course,  we  who  are  in  Christ  Jesus  have  a  place 
above  the  seraphim;  for  when  Jesus  Christ  died  on 
the  Cross  He  took  our  place,  the  place  of  rejec- 


GOD  IS  HOLY 


159 

tion  before  God,  and  the  moment  we  accept  Jesus 
Christ  that  moment  we  step  into  His  place  of  perfect 
acceptance  before  God,  and  so  we  have  a  right  to  come 
into  God’s  presence  with  uncovered  faces  and  to  look 
up  into  His  face  with  perfect  childlike  confidence  and 
call  Him  ‘‘Father.”  But  nevertheless  we  should  never 
lose  sight  of  the  fact  that,  while  God  is  our  Father, 
He  is  our  ''Holy  Father,”  and  so  along  with  our  fear¬ 
less  childlike  trust  there  should  also  be  a  profound 
sense  of  awe  in  the  presence  of  this  infinitely  Holy 
Being  whom  we  call  “God”  and  “Father.”  The  light 
and  frivolous  way,  the  careless  and  familiar  way,  with 
which  many,  both  ministers  and  people,  draw  nigh  to 
God  to-day  in  what  they  call  prayer  and  praise  and 
worship,  is  shocking  to  any  one  who  has  any  real  and 
complete  Bible  conception  of  Who  and  what  God  is. 
I  dislike  jazz  music;  I  abhor  jazz  worship.  God  is 
holy,  never  forget  that  when  you  draw  nigh  to 
Him. 

2.  The  second  important  inference  from  the  fact 
that  God  is  infinitely  Holy  is  that.  The  pure  light  of 
God's  Holiness  reveals  the  blackness  of  our  own  sinfid- 
ness.  This  we  see  in  the  two  verses  that  immediately 
follow  those  just  quoted  from  Isaiah,  Isa.  6:5,  6 : 

“Then  I  said.  Woe  is  me!  for  I  am  undone: 
because  I  am  a  man  of  unclean  lips,  and  I  dwell 
in  the  midst  of  a  people  of  unclean  lips;  for 
mine  eyes  have  seen  the  King,  Jehovah  of 
Hosts.” 

Isaiah,  who  uttered  these  words,  was  perhaps  the 
holiest  man  of  his  day;  but  when  he  came  to  the  place 
where  he  actually  met  God,  the  undimmed,  dazzling 


i6o  THE  GOD  OF  THE  BIBLE 

white  light  of  the  infinite  Holiness  of  God  revealed  to 
him  the  depths  of  his  own  vileness  and  led  him  to 
cry,  as  just  quoted: 

*‘Woe  is  me!  for  I  am  undone:  because  I 
am  a  man  of  unclean  lips,  and  I  dwell  in  the 
midst  of  a  people  of  unclean  lips/’ 

We  see  the  same  thing  in  Job  42 :  5,  6.  Job  has 
been  stoutly  maintaining  his  own  perfect  and  unblem¬ 
ished  integrity  against  all  the  accusations  and  insinua¬ 
tions  of  his  friends  but  now  he  comes  face  to  face 
with  God  Himself,  the  Infinitely  Holy  One,  and  he 
cries : 

‘T  have  heard  of  Thee  by  the  hearing  of  the 
ear : 

But  now  mine  eye  seeth  Thee. 

Wherefore  I  abhor  myself j 

And  repent  in  dust  and  ashes.” 

If  any  man  thinks  well  of  himself  he  has  never  met 
God.  Nothing  will  demolish  self-righteousness  like 
one  real  sight  of  God. 

If  there  could  burst  upon  us  one  glimpse  of  God  as 
He  really  is  in  His  infinite  Holiness,  as  He  is  as  the 
seraphim  behold  Him  in  Heaven  right  now,  every 
one  of  us  would  fall  on  his  face  before  God  and  cry, 
“Woe  is  me !  for  I  am  undone :  because  I  am  a  man 
of  unclean  lips,  and  I  dwell  in  the  midst  of  a  people 
of  unclean  lips.  God  be  merciful  to  me,  the  sinner.” 

3.  The  third  great  and  necessary  inference  from 
the  fact  that  God  is  infinitely  Holy  is,  There  is  no 
forgiveness  without  atonement.  This  all  important 
truth  is  declared  over  and  over  again  in  many  different 
ways  in  the  Old  Testament  and  also  in  the  New  Testa- 


GOD  IS  HOLY  i6i 

ment.  One  illustration  of  this  fact  is  enough,  Heb. 
9:22: 

” Apart  from  shedding  of  blood  there  is  no 
remission/' 

Sin  must  be  covered  from  the  holy  gaze  of  God, 
and  nothing  will  cover  it  but  the  blood  of  Christ  Jesus. 
Let  me  put  to  each  one  of  you  the  question,  Is  your 
sin  covered? 

This  great  truth  that  there  is  no  forgiveness  with¬ 
out  atonement  runs  all  through  the  Bible  and  deter¬ 
mines  very  much  of  both  its  history  and  its  explicit 
teaching.  Way  back  in  the  garden  of  Eden  when  sin 
first  entered,  Adam  and  Eve  tried  to  cover  their  sin 
and  their  shame  with  self-made  garments  of  leaves, 
but  God  covered  them  with  the  skins  taken  from  the 
animals  whose  blood  had  been  shed,  types  of  the  atone¬ 
ment  of  Jesus  Christ.  Soon  after  that  Cain  and  Abel 
came  to  God  with  their  sacrifices.  Cain  came,  bearing 
the  fair  and  fragrant  fruits  of  the  ground,  but  was 
not  suffered  to  approach  God!  Abel  came  with  the 
shed  blood  of  the  firstlings  of  his  dock,  and  “J^^ovah 
had  respect  unto  Abel  and  to  his  offering:  but  unto 
Cain  and  his  offering  he  had  not  respect”  (Gen. 

4:3-5)- 

What  mean  those  stern  judgments  upon  sin  set  forth 
in  the  Old  Testament;  the  blotting  out  of  the  whole 
old  world  by  the  flood ;  the  blotting  out  of  the  Canaan- 
ites,  men,  women,  and  children ;  God’s  stern  judgments 
upon  Israel;  and  all  the  appalling  judgments  of  the 
Bible?  They  mean  that  God  is  Holy  and  hates  sin. 

What  means  that  constant,  ever-flowing  river  of 
blood  that  runs  through  the  whole  Old  Testament,  be- 


i62 


THE  GOD  OF  THE  BIBLE 


ginning  in  the  garden  of  Eden  when  sin  first  entered 
and  ever  widening,  the  blood  of  thousands,  yes,  mil¬ 
lions  of  innocent  lambs  and  other  sacrificial  animals? 
It  means  that  God  is  Holy  and  that  man  is  a  sinner 
and  that  “Apart  from  shedding  of  blood  there  is  no 
remission.’' 

What  means  that  supreme  tragedy  of  all  history, 
the  tragedy  of  Calvary,  where  the  only  perfectly  holy 
and  righteous  man  who  ever  walked  this  earth,  hung 
upon  a  cross  dying,  with  a  robber  on  a  cross  at  each 
side,  and  the  mob  mocking  Him,  not  the  robbers,  and 
not  only  deserted  by  man  hut  deserted  by  God,  and 
crying  with  breaking  heart,  “My  God,  my  God,  why 
hast  Thou  forsaken  me?”  What  does  it  mean,  this 
profoundest  of  all  the  mysteries  of  all  the  ages?  It 
means  that  God  is  Holy,  and  that  man  is  a  sinner, 
and  that  “without  the  shedding  of  blood  (and  the 
making  thus  of  a  perfect  atonement)  there  is  no  for¬ 
giveness.” 

4.  The  fourth  inference  from  the  fact  of  the  in¬ 
finite  Holiness  of  God  is.  The  W onderfidness  of  God's 
Love.  It  would  be  no  wonder  if  an  unholy  God  could 
love  unholy  men.  But  that  the  God  ''whose  name  is 
Holy,”  the  God  who  is  absolutely  Holy,  the  God  who 
has  Holiness  for  His  essential  moral  nature,  the  in¬ 
finitely  Holy  God,  could  love  beings  so  utterly  sinful 
as  we  are,  that  is  the  wonder  of  the  eternities.  There 
are  many  deep  mysteries  in  the  Bible  but  none  other 
so  profound  as  this. 


CHAPTER  IX 


GOD  IS  LOVE 

We  have  already  seen  that  in  the  Bible,  even  in 
its  earliest  books,  books  written  nearly  thirty-four 
hundred  years  ago,  we  have  set  before  us  a  con¬ 
ception  of  God  that  is  more  profound,  more  exalted, 
more  awe-inspiring,  more  gladdening,  and  heart-thrill¬ 
ing  and  ennobling,  than  is  to  be  found  in  any  or  in  all 
of  the  profoundest  philosophies  of  the  past  or  even  of 
the  present  day,  except  in  so  far  as  the  philosophies 
of  the  present  day  have  borrowed  their  conception  of 
God  from  this  old,  old  Book,  the  Bible.  And  we  have 
also  seen  that  there  is  not  to  be  found  outside  of  the 
Bible,  in  all  the  literature  of  all  nations  and  of  all  ages, 
anything  that  even  approaches  the  Bible  statements 
in  beauty,  simplicity,  force,  grandeur,  splendor,  and 
sublimity  of  expression.  And  we  have  seen  that  the 
only  explanation  that  has  even  the  slightest  semblance 
of  reasonableness  of  these  two  unquestionable  facts  is 
that  the  Bible,  even  in  its  earliest  portions,  is  a  direct 
and  supernatural  revelation  from  God,  and  that  these 
earliest  Bible  writers  wrote  the  very  words  found  in 
the  Holy  Scriptures  as  the  Holy  Spirit  moved  them 
and  impelled  them  and  empowered  them  to  write,  and 
that  these  earliest  portions  of  the  Bloly  Scriptures, 
beyond  the  possibility  of  any  intelligent  and  honest 
question,  were,  as  Paul  more  than  eighteen  hundred 

163 


THE  GOD  OF  THE  BIBLE 


164 

and  fifty  years  ago  declared  them  to  be,  ‘^God- 
breathed”  (H  Tim.  3:  16). 

But  it  is  only  when  we  come  to  the  consideration  of 
the  moral  character  of  the  God  of  the  Bible  that  we 
see  to  the  full  extent  the  immeasurable  superiority  of 
that  conception  of  God  that  the  Bible  presents  to  all 
representations  of  God  found  elsewhere. 

In  the  last  chapter  we  began  the  study  of  the  moral 
character  of  God,  beginning  with  the  foundation  fact 
regarding  the  moral  character  of  God,  the  fact  that 
God  is  Holy,  infinitely  and  absolutely  holy,  that  “God 
is  light,  and  in  Him  is  no  darkness  at  all.” 

But  the  same  book  in  the  Bible  which  contains  that 
wondrous  statement  that  “God  is  light,  and  in  Him  is 
no  darkness  at  all,”  one  of  the  most  illuminating  and 
awe-inspiring  sentences  that  was  ever  written,  contains 
another  sentence  which  is  perhaps  the  greatest  sen¬ 
tence  that  was  ever  written,  “God  is  love,”  and  this 
sentence  determines  the  particular  subject  of  this  chap¬ 
ter,  which  is.  The  God  of  the  Bible:  God  is  Love. 

I  have  tried  to  reduce  my  texts  to  as  small  a  number 
as  possible  but,  even  so,  I  am  compelled  to  include 
twelve  texts,  and  some  of  those  included  consist  of 
several  verses,  and  even  so  I  shall  be  compelled,  as  we 
go  on,  to  introduce  numerous  other  passages  of  Scrip¬ 
ture,  if  we  are  to  treat  this  great  subject  with  anything 
like  fullness  and  fairness.  Please  note  carefully  my 
texts,  for  the  whole  message  of  the  chapter  is  in  my 
texts.  It  is  the  God  of  the  Bible  that  we  are  studying, 
not  the  God  of  my  thoughts,  nor  of  my  philosophy  nor 
of  my  theology  any  more  than  the  God  of  Modern 
Philosophy  or  the  God  of  the  New  Theology.  All  we 


GOD  IS  LOVE 


165 

know  about  God  that  is  really  worth  while  is  what  this 
one  Book  teaches.  It  would  be  amusing,  if  it  were  not 
righteously  exasperating,  to  hear  our  meager-minded 
but  very  self-sufficient  modern  philosophers  and  theo¬ 
logians  say,  ''I  think  so  and  so  about  God.”  Who 
cares  what  you  think  ?  Who  cares  what  I  think  ?  The 
only  thing  of  any  real  moment  is,  What  does  God 
Himself  reveal  about  Himself  in  the  one  Book  which 
is  the  only  “God-breathed”  revelation  of  God.  What 
does  this  Book  say?  That  is  the  only  thing  that  really 
matters.  So  the  entire  chapter  contains  only  an  ex¬ 
position  of  what  God  Himself  clearly  and  plainly  says 
in  His  own  Book. 

You  will  find  the  first  text  in  I  Jno.  4:8: 

“He  that  loveth  not  knoweth  not  God :  for 
God  is  love.'' 

You  will  find  our  second  text  in  I  Jno.  4:16: 

“And  we  know  and  have  believed  the  love 
which  God  hath  in  us.  God  is  love;  he  that 
abideth  in  love  abideth  in  God,  and  God  abideth 
in  him.” 

You  will  find  our  third  text  in  I  Jno.  4:7: 

“Beloved,  let  us  love  one  another:  for  love 
is  of  God;  and  every  one  that  loveth  is  begot¬ 
ten  of  God,  and  knoweth  God.” 

You  will  find  our  fourth  text  in  I  Jno.  3:16,  17 : 

Hereby  know  we  love,  because  He  laid 
down  His  life  for  us:  and  we  ought  to  lay  down 
our  lives  for  the  brethren.  But  whoso  hath 
the  world’s  goods,  and  beholdeth  his  brother  in 
need,  and  shutteth  up  his  compassion  from  him, 
how  doth  the  love  of  God  abide  in  him?” 


i66  THE  GOD  OF  THE  BIBLE 

You  will  find  our  fifth  text  in  Matt.  5 : 44,  45 : 

“But  I  say  unto  you,  Love  your  enemies,  and 
pray  for  them  that  persecute  you;  that  ye  may 
he  sons  of  your  Father  who  is  in  heaven:  for 
He  maketh  His  sun  to  rise  on  the  evil  and  the 
good,  and  sendeth  rain  on  the  just  and  the  un¬ 
just.” 

You  will  find  our  sixth  text  in  Jno.  17:24: 

“Father,  I  desire  that  they  also  whom  thou 
hast  given  me  be  with  me  where  I  am,  that 
they  may  behold  my  glory,  which  thou  hast 
given  me :  for  thou  lovedst  Me  before  the 
foundation  of  the  world/^ 

You  will  find  our  seventh  text  in  John  3:16: 

“For  God  so  loved  the  world,  that  He  gave 
His  only  begotten  Son,  that  whosoever  believ- 
eth  on  Him  should  not  perish,  but  have  eternal 
life.” 

You  will  find  our  eighth  text  in  Rom.  5:6-8: 

“For  while  we  were  yet  weak,  in  due  season 
Christ  died  for  the  ungodly.  For  scarcely  for 
a  righteous  man  will  one  die :  for  peradventure 
for  the  good  man  some  one  would  even  dare 
to  die.  But  God  commendeth  His  ozvn  love 
toward  us,  in  that,  while  we  were  yet  sinners, 
Christ  died  for  us/^ 

You  will  find  our  ninth  text  in  Eph.  2:4,  5 : 

“But  God,  being  rich  in  mercy,  for  His  great 
love  wherewith  He  loved  us,  even  when  we 
were  dead  through  our  trespasses,  made  us  alive 
together  with  Christ  (by  grace  have  ye  been 
saved).” 


GOD  IS  LOVE 


167 


You  will  find  our  tenth  text  in  I  Jno.  4:9,  10: 

''Herein  was  the  love  of  God  manifested  in 
us,  that  God  hath  sent  His  only  begotten  Son 
into  the  world  that  we  might  live  through  Him. 
Herein  is  love,  not  that  we  loved  God,  but  that 
He  loved  us,  and  sent  His  Son  to  be  the  propi¬ 
tiation  for  our  sins.” 

You  will  find  our  eleventh  text  in  Zeph.  3:  17: 

"Jehovah  thy  God  is  in  the  midst  of  thee,  a 
mighty  one  who  will  save;  He  will  rejoice  over 
thee  with  joy;  He  will  rest  in  His  love;  He 
will  joy  over  thee  with  singing.” 

You  will  find  our  twelfth  text  in  Gen.  i :  1-3,  26-28, 

‘‘In  the  beginning  God  created  the  heavens 
and  the  earth.  And  the  earth  was  waste  and 
void;  and  darkness  was  upon  the  face  of  the 
deep:  and  the  Spirit  of  God  moved  upon  the 
face  of  the  waters.  And  God  said,  Let  there 
be  light:  and  there  was  light.  .  .  .  And  God 
said,  Let  us  make  man  in  our  image,  after  our 
likeness:  and  let  them  have  dominion  over  the 
fish  of  the  sea,  and  over  the  birds  of  the 
heavens,  and  over  the  cattle,  and  over  all  the 
earth,  and  over  every  creeping  thing  that  creep- 
eth  upon  the  earth.  And  God  created  man  in 
His  own  image,  in  the  image  of  God  created 
He  him;  male  and  female  created  He  them. 
And  God  blessed  them :  and  God  said  unto 
them.  Be  fruitful,  and  multiply,  and  replenish 
the  earth,  and  subdue  it;  and  have  dominion 
over  the  fish  of  the  sea,  and  over  the  birds  of 


THE  GOD  OF  THE  BIBLE 


1 68 

the  heavens,  and  over  every  living  thing  that 
moveth  upon  the  earth.  .  .  .  And  God  saw 
everything  that  He  had  made,  and,  behold,  it 
was  very  good.” 

/.  God  Is  Love. 

In  the  first  two  texts  we  are  told  in  so  many  words 
that  ''God  is  love.”  The  other  texts  imply  the  same 
great  truth.  While  more  of  the  texts  are  taken  from 
John’s  writings,  either  his  Gospel  or  his  First  Epistle, 
than  from  any  other  writer,  some  of  the  most  notable 
texts  are  taken  from  Paul’s  writings,  and  one  is  from 
the  words  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Himself,  and  one  is  from 
one  of  the  least  studied  old  Testament  prophets,  and 
one  consists  of  several  verses  from  the  very  first  chap¬ 
ter  in  the  Bible,  written  about  thirty-four  hundred 
years  ago.  These  verses  all  set  forth  the  tremendous 
and  stupendous  truth  that,  God  is  love.  Not  merely 
that  God  loves,  hut  God  is  love,  i.  e..  Love  is  the  very 
essence  of  His  moral  nature.  He  is  also  the  source  of 
all  love. 

The  whole  Bible  is  a  love  story,  the  story  of  the 
infinite  love  of  an  infinitely  Holy  God  for  a  fallen  and 
morally  worthless  race  of  sinners,  of  which  you  and 
I  are  members.  If  any  one  should  ask  me  for  a  sen¬ 
tence  to  be  printed  on  the  covers  of  his  Bible  in  letters 
of  gold  that  would  set  forth  the*entire  contents  of  the 
Book,  it  would  be  that  most  marvelous  sentence  ever 
written,  consisting  of  only  three  monosyllables,  one  of 
four  letters  and  one  of  three  letters  and  one  of  only 
two  letters,  only  nine  letters  in  all,  “God  is  love.” 

I  said  in  my  last  chapter,  “The  whole  Bible,  both  the 


GOD  IS  LOVE 


169 

Old  Testament  and  the  New  Testament,  is  dominated 
by  one  thought,  the  thought  of  the  Infinite  Holiness  of 
God.  Let  me  say  to-day  what  is  equally  true:  The 
whole  Bible,  both  the  Old  Testament  and  the  New 
Testament,  is  dominated  by  one  thought,  the  thought 
that  God  is  Love,  that  love  is  the  very  essence  of  God’s 
moral  nature. 

II.  What  Does  ”Love'’  Mean? 

This  brings  us  to  the  important  question.  What  does 
the  Word  ''Love”  Mean;  or.  What  is  Love? 

t 

We  must  go  to  the  Bible  itself  for  a  satisfying  and 
entirely  dependable  answer  to  that  all-important  ques¬ 
tion.  This  is  the  point  at  which  a  multitude  of  preach¬ 
ers  and  theologians  and  poets  and  romancers  and 
founders  of  various  cults  have  gone  astray;  they  have 
taken  from  the  Bible  the  great  truth  that  God  is  love, 
and  then  have  not  been  wise  enough  and  fair-minded 
enough  to  search  the  Bible  to  find  out  exactlv  how 
God  Himself  defines  or  describes  love,  and  they  have 
consequently  drawn  all  sorts  of  unwarranted  conclu¬ 
sions  from  the  statement  that  “God  is  love,”  and  have 
fallen  into  all  sorts  of  entirely  unbiblical  and  utterly 
untrue  and  monstrous  theological  and  philosophical 
aberrations  and  vagaries. 

That  glorious  word  “love”  is  one  of  the  most 
abused  words  in  our  English  language.  From  being  one 
of  the  most  glorious  words  and  divinest  words  in  our 
language,  it  has  become  in  the  usage  of  the  great  mass 
of  men  one  of  the  most  weakly  and  sickly  sentimental 
and  really  immoral  words,  and  not  infrequently  a  fine 


170 


THE  GOD  OF  THE  BIBLE 


looking  cloak  for  the  basest  selfishness  and  vilest  lust. 

Let  us  turn,  then,  to  the  Bible  for  our  definition  of 
what  love  really  means,  i.  e.^  what  God  Himself  means 
by  love. 

Read  I  Jno.  3 :  16,  17: 

"‘Hereby  know  we  love,  because  He  laid 
down  His  life  for  us:  and  we  ought  to  lay 
down  our  lives  for  the  brethren.  But  whoso 
hath  the  world’s  goods,  and  beholdeth  his 
brother  in  need,  and  shutteth  up  his  compas¬ 
sion  from  him,  how  doth  the  love  of  God  abide 
in  him?” 

Here  is  God’s  definition  of  love,  or  description  of 
love,  “Hereby  know  we  love,  because  He  laid  down 
His  life  for  us/'  We  see,  then,  that.  Love  is  no  mere 
sentimental  tenderness,  no  mere  selfish  fondness  or 
affection  for  another,  or  a  mere  attraction  to  another; 
but  love  is  a  self-sacrificing  desire  for,  and  delight  in, 
the  welfare  of  the  one  loved.  You  get  practically  the 
same  definition  of  love,  though  phrased  in  other  words, 
in  our  Lord’s  own  description  of  the  Father  God’s  love 
in  Matt.  5 :  44,  45 : 

^‘But  I  say  unto  you,  Love  your  enemies,  and 
pray  for  them  that  persecute  you;  that  ye  may 
be  sons  of  your  Father  who  is  in  heaven :  for 
He  maketh  His  sun  to  rise  on  the  evil  and  the 
good,  and  sendeth  rain  on  the  just  and  the  un¬ 
just.” 

III.  Whom  Does  God  Love? 

Now  another  question  of  fundamental  importance 
confronts  us,  Whom  does  God  the  Father  love?  Here 


GOD  IS  LOVE 


171 

again  we  are  not  left  to  dream  and  imagine  and  specu¬ 
late  for  ourselves.  God  in  His  own  Word  tells  us  in 
the  plainest  and  most  unmistakable  language  exactly 
who  it  is  whom  He  loves. 

I.  In  the  first  place,  God  loves  *'His  own”  and 
”only  Son,”  Jesus  Christ,  our  Lord.  This  truth  is 
set  forth  again  and  again  in  the  Bible  in  the  plainest 
and  at  the  same  time  the  most  expressive  language. 
Read,  for  example,  Matt.  3:  17: 

“And  lo,  a  voice  out  of  the  heavens,  saying, 
This  is  my  beloved  Son,  in  whom  I  am  well 
pleased.” 

Let  me  give  you  a  little  more  literal  translation  of 
the  Greek,  a  translation  that  puts  more  emphasis  upon 
the  thought  that  Jesus  Christ  is  the  one  original  and 
eternal  object  of  God  the  Father's  eternal  love,  “And 
behold,  a  voice  out  of  the  heavens  saying.  This  is  the 
Son  of  me,  the  beloved  one,  in  whom  I  am  well 
pleased.” 

We  find  God  saying  again  the  same  thing  audibly 
“out  of  the  (luminous)  cloud”  in  which  He  came 
down  at  the  transfiguration  of  our  Lord,  described  in 
Matt.  17:5: 

“While  he  was  yet  speaking,  behold,  a  bright 
[rather,  luminous]  cloud  overshadowed  them: 
and  behold,  a  voice  out  of  the  cloud,  saying. 
This  is  my  beloved  Son,  in  whom  I  am  well 
pleased;  hear  ye  Him.” 

Here,  again,  the  Greek  literally  translated  would  be 
the  same  as  in  Matt.  3:  17,  i.  e.,  “This  is  the  Son  of 
me,  the  beloved  one,  in  whom  I  am  well  pleased.” 

Again,  we  read  in  Luke  20:  13: 


17? 


THE  GOD  OF  THE  BIBLE 


“And  the  lord  of  the  vineyard  said,  What 
shall  I  do  ?  I  will  send  my  beloved  son ;  it  may 
be  they  will  reverence  him.’^ 

Here,  again,  “my  beloved  Son’^  in  the  Greek  reads 
literally,  “the  Son  of  me,  the  beloved  one/^ 

Read  just  one  more  verse  on  this  particular  point, 
Jno.  17:24: 

“Father,  I  desire  that  they  also  whom  thou 
hast  given  me  be  with  me  where  I  am,  that  they 
may  behold  my  glory,  which  thou  hast  given 
me:  for  thou  lovedst  ME  before  the  foun¬ 
dation  of  the  world” 

These  passages  all  set  forth  definitely  and  clearly 
the  profoundly  suggestive  and  meaningful  fact  that 
God's  own  Son,  Jesus  Christ,  our  Lord,  was  the  origi¬ 
nal  and  eternal  object  of  God  the  Father's  love.  If 
God  is  eternal,  and  we  have  already  seen  that  He  cer¬ 
tainly  is,  then  His  love  must  have  an  eternal  object. 
There  must,  therefore,  because  of  a  necessity  in  the 
Divine  Being  Himself,  be  a  multiplicity  of  persons  in 
the  Godhead.  The  eternal  object  of  the  Divine  love 
of  the  Eternal  Father  is  the  Eternal  Son, 

2,  In  the  second  place,  God  loves  those  who  love 
His  Son  (Who  is  the  original  and  eternal  object  of 
His  love)  and  who  believe  that  He,  Jesus  Christ,  came 
forth  from  the  Father,  This  fundamentally  important 
truth  is  set  forth  in  our  Lord’s  own  words  as  recorded 
in  John  14 :  21,  23 : 

“He  that  hath  my  commandments,  and  keep- 
eth  them,  he  it  is  that  loveth  me:  and  he  that 
loveth  me  shall  be  loved  of  my  Father,  and  I 
will  love  him,  and  will  manifest  myself  unto 


GOD  IS  LOVE 


173 


him.  .  .  .  (23.)  Jesus  answered  and  said  unto 
him,  If  a  man  love  me,  he  will  keep  my  word : 
and  my  Father  mill  love  him,  and  we  will  come 
unto  him,  and  make  our  abode  with  him.” 

We  find  our  Lord  Jesus  teaching  the  same  thing 
again  in  Jno.  16:27: 

“For  the  Father  Himself  loveth  you,  because 
ye  have  loved  me,  and  have  believed  that  I  came 
forth  from  the  Father.” 

God  loves  those  who  love  His  Son  and  believe  that 
He  came  forth  from  the  Father,  because  of  their  rela¬ 
tionship  to  His  Son,  because  they  are  united  to  Him  by 
love  and  faith. 

God  loves,  as  we  shall  in  a  few  moments  see,  all 
men;  but  He  has  an  altogether  peculiar  love  for  those 
who  are  in  Christ.  God  has  precisely  the  same  love  to 
those  zvho  are  in  Christ  Jesus  that  He  has  for  Christ 
Jesus  Himself.  This  our  Lord  Himself  tells  us  in 
one  of  the  most  astounding  statements  to  be  found  in 
the  Bible;  you  will  find  it  in  JnO’.  17:23: 

“I  in  them,  and  thou  in  me,  that  they  may  be 
perfected  into  one;  that  the  world  may  know 
that  thou  didst  send  me,  and  lovedst  them  even 
as  thou  lovedst  me.” 

Of  course,  there  is  a  love  of  God  to  those  who  are 
now  in  Christ  which  is  antecedent  to  their  love  to 
Christ.  This  we  are  distinctly  told  in  I  Jno.  4:  19, 
“We  love,  because  he  first  loved  us.” 

3.  In  the  third  place,  God  loves  the  world,  the  whole 
human  race,  and  each  individual  member  of  it.  We 
find  this  truth  taught  in  what  is  perhaps  the  most  famil¬ 
iar  verse  in  the  Bible,  John  3:16: 


174 


THE  GOD  OF  THE  BIBLE 


^Tor  God  so  loved  the  world,  that  He  gave 
His  only  begotten  Son,  that  whosoever  believ- 
eth  on  Him  should  not  perish,  but  have  eternal 
life.’’ 

The  same  truth  is  found  in  I  Tim.  2:3,  4,  ‘This  is 
good  and  acceptable  in  the  sight  of  God  our  Saviour; 
who  would  have  all  men  to  he  saved,  and  come  to  the 
knowledge  of  the  truth.”  This  same  truth  is  put  in 
still  another  way  in  II  Pet.  3 : 9,  “The  Lord  is  not 
slack  concerning  his  promise,  as  some  count  slackness; 
but  is  longsuffering  to  you-ward,  not  wishing  that  any 
should  perish,  but  that  all  should  come  to  repentance.” 

4.  In  the  fourth  place,  God  loves  the  sinner,  the  un¬ 
godly,  those  dead  in  sins.  This  amazing  truth  is  de¬ 
clared  again  and  again  in  a  variety  of  ways  in  the 
Bible.  For  example,  we  read  in  Rom.  5  :  6-8 : 

“For  while  we  were  yet  weak,  in  due  season 
Christ  died  for  the  ungodly.  For  scarcely  for 
a  righteous  man  will  one*  die :  for  peradventure 
for  the  good  man  some  one  would  even  dare 
to  die.  But  God  commendeth  His  own  love  to¬ 
ward  us,  in  that,  zvhile  we  were  yet  sinners, 
Christ  died  for  us.” 

Turn  now  to  Eph.  2:4,  5 : 

“But  God,  being  rich  in  mercy,  for  His  great 
love  wherewith  He  loved  us,  even  when  we 
were  dead  through  our  trespasses,  made  us 
alive  together  with  Christ  (by  grace  have  ye 
been  saved).” 

We  find  this  truth  in  the  Old  Testament  as  well  as 
in  the  New  Testament.  We  find  it  even  in  that  stern 
old  prophet  of  the  exile,  Ezekiel,  in  Ez.  33:11: 


GOD  IS  LOVE 


175 

“Say  unto  them,  As  I  live,  saith  the  Lord 
Jehovah,  I  have  no  pleasure  in  the  death  of  the 
wicked;  hut  that  the  wicked  turn  from  his  zvay 
and  live:  turn  ye,  turn  ye  from  your  evil  ways; 
for  why  will  ye  die,  O  house  of  Israel?” 

Please  note  the  tender  pleading  in  the  “turn  ye,  turn 
ye.”  Of  course,  it  is  involved  in  God  loving  “the 
world”  that  He  loved  sinners,  the  ungodly,  the  dead 
in  sins,  but  the  Bible  lays  especial  emphasis  upon  this 
fact. 


IV.  How  the  Love  of  God  Manifests  Itself. 

We  come  now  to  the  very  important  question,  Hozv 
does  the  love  of  God  manifest  itself f  Here  we  must 
walk  very  carefully  and  be  sure  we  are  going  exactly 
by  the  Book  every  step  of  the  way;  for  it  is  at  just  this 
point  that  many  go  astray  into  all  kinds  of  vagaries 
and  theological  aberrations. 

I.  In  the  first  place,  God^s  love  manifests  itself  in 
God's  ministering  to  the  need  and  joy  of  those  whom 
He  loves;  and  protecting  them  from  all  evil.  Read 
Isa.  48:  14,  20,  21 : 

“Assemble  yourselves,  all  ye,  and  hear;  who 
among  them  hath  declared  these  things?  He 
whom  Jehovah  loveth  shall  perform  His  pleas¬ 
ure  on  Babylon,  and  His  arm  shall  be  on  the 
Chaldeans.  ...  (20.)  Go  ye  forth  from 

Babylon,  flee  ye  from  the  Chaldeans;  with  a 
voice  of  singing  declare  ye,  tell  this,  utter  it  even 
to  the  end  of  the  earth:  say  ye,  Jehovah  hath 
redeemed  His  servant  Jacob.  (21.)  And  they 


176 


THE  GOD  OF  THE  BIBLE 


thirsted  not  when  He  led  them  through  the 
deserts;  He  caused  the  waters  to  How  out  of 
the  rock  for  them;  He  clave  the  rock  also,  and 
the  water  gushed  out.” 

These  are  exceedingly  beautiful  and  marvelously 
comforting  words,  written  before  Modern  Philosophy 
or  even  ancient  Greek  Philosophy  was  dreamed  of; 
written  more  than  twenty-five  hundred  years  ago. 
Who  taught  Isaiah  so  to  write  and  enabled  him  so  to 
write,  so  many,  many  centuries  ago,  in  those  exceed¬ 
ingly  “dark  ages”  ?  There  is  but  one  reasonable  an¬ 
swer,  God.  Isaiah  “spoke  as  he  was  borne  along  by 

•  i  ^ 

the  Holy  Spirit”  (II  Pet.  1:21);  his  very  words  were 
“God-breathed.”  To  deny  this  is  to  be  unscientific 
and  irrational,  mentally  befogged  and  blinded  by  the 
narrow-minded  and  stubborn  bigotry  of  the  New  The¬ 
ology.  Ponder  deeply  these  divinely-inspired  words  of 
Isaiah. 

But  let  us  go  nine  centuries  further  back  still,  thirty- 
four  hundred  years  ago.  Read  Deut.  32:9-12: 

“For  Jehovah’s  portion  is  His  people; 

Jacob  is  the  lot  of  his  inheritance. 

He  found  him  in  a  desert  land. 

And  in  the  waste  howling  wilderness; 

He  compassed  him  about,  He  cared  for  him, 
He  kept  him  as  the  apple  of  His  eye. 

As  an  eagle  that  stirreth  up  her  nest. 

That  fluttereth  over  her  young. 

He  spread  abroad  His  wings,  He  took  them. 
He  bare  them  on  His  pinions. 

Jehovah  alone  did  lead  him. 

And  there  was  no  foreign  god  with  him.” 


GOD  IS  LOVE 


177 


Even  as  mere  literature,  where  could  that  be 
matched  for  sublime  imagery  and  expressive  diction 
and  masterly  figure?  But  it  is  far  more  than  mere 
literature,  superlatively  fine  as  it  is  as  literature,  it  is 
the  heart-comforting  and  soul-enthralling  truth  of 
God,  truth  for  those  long,  long  ago  ages,  and  truth 
for  to-day,  truth  which  we  have  not  outgrown  even 
yet,  for  all  our  boasted  intellectual  evolution  and  prog¬ 
ress  through  these  long,  long  centuries,  yes,  truth  to 
which  we  have  not  even  yet  grown  up.  And  yet  these 
peerless  words  are  entirely  omitted  in  Professor  Kent’s 
“Shorter  Bible,”  though  he  unblushingly  states  in  the 
Preface  to  that  book,  that  contemptibly  inadequate 
book,  that  it  “singles  out  and  sets  in  logical  order 
those  parts  of  the  Bible  which  are  of  vital  interest  and 
practical  value  in  the  present  age.''  I  leave  you  to 
judge  for  yourself  whether  this  claim  of  Professor 
Kent’s  is  true,  or  an  unblushing  and  abominable  and 
ridiculous  lie. 

Turn  to  the  very  next  chapter  of  this  same  wondrous 
book,  in  the  Book  of  books,  Deut.  33:  3,  12: 

“Yea,  He  loveth  the  people; 

All  His  saints  are  in  Thy  hand : 

And  they  sat  down  at  Thy  feet; 

Every  one  shall  receive  of  Thy  words. 

•  •  •  •  •  •  • 
(12)  Of  Benjamin  he  said. 

The  beloved  of  Jehovah  shall  dwell  in  safety 
by  Him; 

He  covereth  him  all  the  day  long, 

And  he  dwelleth  between  His  shoulders." 

All  this,  also.  Professor  Kent  omits  in  his  book  that 


178  THE  GOD  OF  THE  BIBLE 

claims  to  set  forth  all  “those  parts  of  the  Bible  which 
are  of  vital  interest  and  practical  value  to  the  present 
age.”  Poor,  blind  man,  posing  as  a  thorough  Bible 
scholar,  and  yet  so  densely  ignorant  of  the  full  con¬ 
tents  of  that  wondrous  book. 

2.  In  the  second  place,  God’s  love  manifests  itself 
in  God’s  chastening  and  scourging  His  loved  ones  for 
their  profit,  that  out  of  this  chastening  the  peaceable 
fruit  of  righteousness  may  come.  This  we  find  taught 
for  example  in  Heb.  12  :  6-1 1 : 

“For  whom  the  Lord  loveth  he  chasteneth, 
And  scourgeth  every  son  whom  He  receiveth. 
It  is  for  chastening  that  ye  endure;  God 
dealeth  with  you  as  with  sons ;  for  what  son  is 
there  whom  his  father  chasteneth  not?  But  if 
ye  are  without  chastening,  whereof  all  have 
been  made  partakers,  then  are  ye  bastards,  and 
not  sons.  Furthermore,  we  had  the  fathers  of 
our  flesh  to  chasten  us,  and  we  gave  them  rev¬ 
erence  :  shall  we  not  much  rather  be  in  subjec¬ 
tion  unto  the  Father  of  spirits,  and  live?  For 
they  indeed  for  a  few  days  chastened  us  as 
seemed  good  to  them ;  but  he  for  our  profit,  that 
we  may  be  partakers  of  His  holiness.  All  chas¬ 
tening  seemeth  for  the  present  to  be  not  joyous 
but  grievous;  yet  afterward  it  yieldeth  peace¬ 
able  fruit  unto  them  that  have  been  exercised 
thereby,  even  the  fruit  of  righteousness.” 

The  fact  that  God  is  love,  and  that  God  loves  us,  is 
no  guarantee  that  we  shall  never  suffer;  rather  is  it  a 
guarantee  that  we  shall  suffer,  for  suffering  is  just 
what  we  sometimes  most  need.  The  parent  who 


GOD  IS  LOVE 


179 


shelters  his  child  from  all  suffering,  under  all  circum¬ 
stances,  is  not  the  parent  who  most  truly  or  most  wisely 
loves  his  child.  No,  he  loves  himself,  and  sacrifices 
his  child’s  highest  good  to  spare  his  own  feelings.  But 
not  so  our  infinitely  wise  and  infinitely  loving 
Heavenly  Father.  He  so  truly  loves  us  that  though  it 
wounds  His  own  heart,  He  “chastens”  and  even 
^'scourges”  us.  Do  not  lay  the  flattering  unction  to 
your  soul  that  because  “God  is  love”  and  because  God 
loves  you  with  infinite  love,  you  will  never  suffer. 
No,  just  because  He  loves  you,  you  surely  will  suffer. 
And  do  not  think  because  you  are  now  undergoing 
suffering  and  almost  unsupportable  pain  or  sorrow  that 
God  does  not  love  you.  No,  it  is  because  He  does  love 
you  that  you  so  suffer. 

3.  In  the  third  place,  God^s  love  manifests  itself  in 
His  being  Himself  afflicted  when  His  loved  ones  are 
afflicted,  ez>en  though  their  afflictions  come  from  His 
own  hand  and  are  the  result  of  their  own  sin.  This 
great  and  comforting  fact  is  set  forth  in  Isa.  63:9: 

“/n  all  their  affliction  He  was  afflicted,  and 
the  angel  of  his  presence  saved  them:  in  his 
love  and  in  His  pity  He  redeemed  them;  and 
He  bare  them,  and  carried  them  all  the  days  of 
old.” 

God  is  here  speaking  particularly  of  the  awful  afflic¬ 
tions  that  overtook  the  Jewish  people.  These  afflic¬ 
tions  were  the  direct  consequence  and  punishment  of 
their  own  wrong-doing,  and  came  directly  or  indirectly 
from  God’s  own  hand.  They  were  the  result  of  their 
own  unfaithfulness  to  God,  and  yet  God  tells  us  that 
in  all  these  appalling  sorrows  and  calamities,  that  re- 


i8o 


THE  GOD  OF  THE  BIBLE 


suited  from  their  own  outrageous  sin,  the  Holy  God  / 
against  whom  they  had  sinned,  and  who  sent  the  suf¬ 
fering  upon  them,  suffered  with  them.  And  these  pro¬ 
found  and  matchless  words  were  written  over  twenty- 
five  centuries  ago.  Who  is  their  real  author  ?  Surely 
not  Isaiah,  but  God.  No  really  intelligent  and  fair- 
minded  man  will  attempt  to  deny  it. 

Such  a  Being  is  the  God  of  the  Bible,  not  the  cold, 
abstract,  impersonal,  emotionless  “Absolute”  of  Mod¬ 
ern  Philosophy,  but  a  Being  with  a  mother’s  heart, 
who,  though  she  may  see  the  need  that  she  severely 
punish  her  child  for  its  own  highest  good,  nevertheless 
suffers  herself  in  all  that  the  child  suffers,  suffers  far 
more  than  the  child,  making  all  the  child’s  agonies  her 
own,  and  is  pierced  to  the  very  heart  by  them. 

Listen!  there  is  not  an  agony  nor  pain  nor  sorrow 
that  any  of  us  suffer,  even  the  keenest  anguish  that 
comes  from  our  own  most  unpardonable  wrong-doing, 
but  our  Father  in  heaven  suffers  with  us.  I  would 
that  we  had  time  to  linger  here  and  take  in  all  the 
wonder  and  all  the  comfort  of  this  thought  of  God 
that  He  has  set  forth  in  this  wonderful  Book,  this 
peerless  Book,  this  Book  that  stands  absolutely  alone 
among  all  the  books  ever  written,  clearly  proven  by 
the  indisputable  facts  in  the  case  to  be  the  one  and 
only  book  that  is  “God-breathed.” 

4.  In  the  fourth  place,  God's  love  is  manifested  in 
His  never  forgetting  those  whom  He  loves.  This  is 
what  we  are  told  in  those  amazing  words  found  in 
Isa.  49:15,  16: 

“Can  a  woman  forget  her  sucking  child,  that 
she  should  not  have  compassion  on  the  son  of 


GOD  IS  LOVE 


i8i 


her  womb?  yea,  these  may  forget,  yet  will  not 
I  forget  thee.  Behold,  I  have  graven  thee  upon 
the  palms  of  my  hands.” 

It  often  seems  to  us,  in  our  blindness,  when  God, 
for  His  own  wise  reasons,  allows  sorrows  and  losses 
and  woes  of  various  kinds  to  accumulate,  that  God 
has  forgotten  us,  but  He  never  has ;  a  mother  may  for¬ 
get  her  nursing  child,  but  God  never  forgets,  no,  not 
for  one  smallest  moment,  those  persons  who  are 
the  objects  of  His  ceaseless  and  never  slumbering 
love. 

5.  We  have  not  even  yet  scaled  the  highest  heights 
or  fathomed  the  deepest  depths  of  the  love  of  the  God 
of  the  Bible.  In  the  fifth  place,  God's  love  has  mani¬ 
fested  itself  by  His  making  the  greatest  sacrifice  in 
His  power  for  those  whom  He  loves,  even  the  sacrifice 
of  His  own  and  only  Son  to  die  as  the  propitiation  for 
our  sins.  Two  of  the  most  meaningful  statements  of 
this  truth  are  found  in  I  Jno.  4:9,  10,  and  in  John 
3:16.  Let  me  read  you  first  I  Jno.  4 :  9,  10 : 

"'Herein  was  the  love  of  God  manifested  in 
us,  that  God  hath  sent  His  only  begotten  Son 
into  the  world  that  we  might  live  through  Him, 
Herein  is  love,  not  that  we  loved  God,  but  that 
He  loved  us,  and  sent  His  Son  to  be  the  propi¬ 
tiation  for  our  sins." 

Now  turn  to  John  3:16,  which  we  have  all  heard 
so  often  and  know  so  well,  and  yet  do  not  know  as  we 
ought  to  know  even  yet,  and  all  whose  depths  we  shall 
never  fathom  till  eternity  dawn : 

“For  God  so  loved  the  world,  that  He  gave 
His  only  begotten  Son,  that  whosoever  believ- 


THE  GOD  OF  THE  BIBLE 


182 

eth  on  Him  should  not  perish,  but  have  eternal 
life.” 

We  have  seen  that  love  is  a  self-sacrificing  desire 
for  and  a  delight  in  the  welfare  of  the  one  loved; 
therefore,  the  true  test  and  measure  of  love  is  sacri¬ 
fice.  The  sacrifice  of  Jesus  Christ  is  the  measure  of 
God^s  love  to  us.  If  we  ever  desire  to  see  as  far  as 
finite  eye  can  see  into  the  unfathomable  depths  of  the 
infinite  love  of  God,  there  is  one  place  to  look,  and 
that  is  to  the  Cross  and  at  the  One  Who  hangs  thereon. 
We  should  recall  the  depth  and  intensity  of  the  in¬ 
finite  and  eternal  love  of  the  Father  to  “His  only  son,” 
and  then  see  Him  hanging  there  enduring  all  the  im¬ 
measurable  agonies  of  the  Cross  to  purchase  redemp¬ 
tion  and  eternal  life  for  us,  and  with  all  this  vividly 
in  our  minds  think  of  the  agonized  heart  of  the  Father, 
Who  loved  His  Son  with  a  love  immeasurably  beyond 
our  comprehension,  and  yet  gave  him  up,  and  gave 
Him  up  not  only  to  die  but  to  die  on  the  Cross  in  our 
stead.  This  is  a  matter  for  us  to  ponder,  to  meditate 
upon,  and  not  for  us  to  try  to  put  into  words,  for  no 
words  can  express  all  the  meaning  of  it,  and  all  pos¬ 
sible  illustrations  fall  infinitely  short  of  describing  the 
reality. 

6.  In  the  sixth  place,  God’s  love  manifests  itself  in 
His  forgiving  sins.  The  Bible,  from  Genesis  Three 
(where  sin  first  entered  human  history)  to  Revelation 
Twenty- two,  is  full  of  this  thought.  Take  one  pas¬ 
sage  among  the  many  that  might  be  cited.  Turn  to 
Isa.  38:17: 

“Behold,  it  was  for  my  peace  that  I  had  great 
bitterness : 


GOD  IS  LOVE  183 

But  thou  hast  in  love  to  my  soul  delivered 
it  from  the  pit  of  corruption ; 

For  thou  hast  cast  all  my  sins  behind  thy 
hack'' 

God,  because  of  His  love  for  us,  will  forgive  the 
sins  of  any  sinner,  no  matter  how  many  and  how 
great  his  sins  may  be,  if  he  on  his  part  will  turn  from 
his  sins  and  unto  God.  Listen  to  the  way  in  which  it 
is  put  in  Isa.  55:7: 

“Let  the  wicked  forsake  his  way,  and  the 
unrighteous  man  his  thoughts;  and  let  him  re¬ 
turn  unto  Jehovah,  and  He  will  have  mercy 
upon  him;  and  to  our  God,  for  He  will  abun¬ 
dantly  pardon." 

Of  course,  God  will  not  forgive  our  sins  if  we  will 
not  forsake  them.  It  would  not  be  love  to  do  that,  but 
God  will  forgive  them  one  and  all,  utterly  blot  them 
out,  no  matter  how  many  and  how  black  they  may  be, 
if  we  turn  from  them. 

7.  In  the  seventh  place,  God's  love  manifests  itself 
in  His  imparting  life  to  those  dead  in  trespasses  and 
sins,  in  His  raising  them  up  together  with  Christ,  and 
making  them  sit  together  with  Christ  in  the  heavenly 
places,  and  in  showing  to  us  in  the  ages  to  come  the 
exceeding  riches  of  His  grace  in  kindness  toward  us  in 
Christ  Jesus.  Here  I  have  put  together  four  manifes¬ 
tations  of  God's  love,  because  God  Himself  groups 
them  in  Eph.  2 :  4-7 : 

'‘God,  being  rich  in  mercy,  for  His  great  love 
7Juherewith  He  loved  us,  even  when  we  were 
dead  through  our  trespasses,  made  us  alive  to¬ 
gether  with  Christ  (by  grace  have  ye  .been 


184 


THE  GOD  OF  THE  BIBLE 


saved),  and  raised  tis  up  with  Him,  and  made 
us  to  sit  with  Him  in  the  Heavenly  places,  in 
Christ  Jesus :  that  in  the  ages  to  come  He  might 
show  the  exceeding  riches  of  His  grace  in  kind¬ 
ness  toward  us  in  Christ  Jesus/' 

We  cannot  stop  now  to  dwell  on  these  four  things, 
though  any  one  of  them  is  worthy  of  prolonged  con¬ 
templation  and  meditation,  but  do  stop  long  enough 
to  consider  that  even  now,  notwithstanding  all  the 
wonders  God’s  love  has  wrought,  God  has  only  begun 
to  do  for  us.  The  fullness  of  God’s  love  is  not  yet 
manifested.  It  has  just  begun  to  unfold  itself.  As 
John  puts  it  in  I  Jno.  3 : 2,  “Beloved  now  are  we  chil¬ 
dren  of  God,  and  it  is  not  yet  made  manifest  what  we 
shall  be,"  and  it  is  “m  the  ages  to  come^'  that  God  “will 
show  the  exceeding  riches  of  His  grace  in  kindness  to¬ 
ward  us  in  Christ  Jesus.” 

8.  In  the  eighth  place,  God's  love  manifests  itself 
in  His  granting  us  that  we  should  he  called  the  children 
of  God.  This  we  find  declared  in  God’s  Word  in  I 
Jno.  3:1: 

“Behold  what  manner  of  love  the  Father 
hath  bestowed  upon  us,  that  we  should  be 
called  children  of  God;  and  such  we  are." 

This  is  one  of  the  most  amazing  manifestations  of 
the  love  of  God  when  we  stop  to  think  of  what  sort  of 
a  being  God  himself  is  even  as  we  have  so  imperfectly 
seen  Him  in  our  eight  preceding  studies  of  The  God 
of  the  Bible,  and  when  we  also  stop  to  think  of  what 
sort  of  beings  we  ourselves  are.  Would  it  not  be 
amazing  if  the  wisest  and  noblest  and  richest  and  most 
potent  monarch  of  earth  should  ride  down  to  the  slums 


GOD  IS  LOVE 


185 

of  some  city  of  his  realm  and  seeing  a  filthy,  ragged, 
dirty,  ignorant,  miserable  and  degenerate  child  stand¬ 
ing  by  the  side  of  the  road,  should  stop  and  say  to 
this  disreputable  outcast  lad,  ^‘Come,  get  in  here  with 
me,  and  I  will  take  you  to  the  royal  palace,  and  I  will 
adopt  you  into  my  family,  and  you  shall  bear  my  name 
and  be  my  heir?’'  Yes,  that  would  be  marvelous,  in¬ 
credibly  marvelous;  but  it  would  not  be  one  millionth 
part  so  amazing  as  that  the  great  eternal,  omnipotent, 
omniscient,  infinitely  Holy  God  should  come  down  to 
'the  vile  slums  of  this  fallen  and  corrupt  earth  of  ours 
and  pick  you  and  me  out  in  our  ignorance  and  folly 
and  weakness  and  poverty  and  moral  vileness  and 
turpitude  and  say,  “I  will  adopt  you  into  my  family 
and  give  you  the  right  to  be  called  my  children.”  Lis¬ 
ten  to  it  again  as  I  read  it  from  God’s  own  Word, 
^‘Behold  what  manner  of  love  the  Father  hath  be¬ 
stowed  upon  us,  that  we  should  be  called  children  of 
God;  and  such  we  are”  Why?  Because  of  God’s 
love,  because  God  is  love. 

9.  Just  once  more.  In  the  ninth  place,  God's  love 
manifests  itself  in  His  rejoicing  over  His  saved  people 
with  joy  and  singing,  and  resting  in  His  love  for  them. 
Here,  again,  we  turn  to  an  utterance  of  the  long,  long 
ago,  about  twenty-five  hundred  and  fifty  years  ago, 
six  hundred  and  twenty-five  to  six  hundred  and  thirty 
years  before  our  Lord  Jesus  was  born  in  Bethlehem. 
You  will  find  it  in  Zeph.  3 :  17  : 

‘‘Jehovah  thy  God  is  in  the  midst  of  thee,  a 
mighty  one  who  will  save;  He  will  rejoice  over 
thee  with  joy;  He  zvill  rest  in  His  love;  He  will 
joy  over  thee  with  singing.” 


THE  GOD  OF  THE  BIBLE 


1 86 

What  a  marvelous  and  heart-stirring  picture  we  have 
here!  The  infinite  God,  the  creator  and  upholder  not 
only  of  the  whole  earth,  but  of  the  sun  and  moon  and 
stars,  those  vast  worlds  of  light  in  all  their  countless 
numbers  and  inconceivably  vast  magnitude,  taking 
such  a  tender  interest  in  beings  so  insignificant  as  we 
are,  and  such  morally  worthless  beings  as  you  and  I 
are,  that  when  we  are  saved  he  rejoices  over  us  as  a 
mother  crooning  over  the  child  who  nestles  to  her 
bosom,  singing  a  sweet  lullaby  as  He  draws  us  to  His 
heart  and  rests  in  His  love.  The  Hebrew  word  here 
translated  ‘Test”  is  a  deeply  significant  word.  Liter¬ 
ally  translated  it  would  read,  “He  will  be  silent  in  His 
love,”  i.  e..  His  love  is  perfectly  satisfied,  and  He 
rests  in  a  rapturous  silence  that  is  deeper  than  all  pos¬ 
sibility  of  utterance.  Oh,  such  is  God,  such  is  the  God 
of  the  Bible !  Not  the  god  of  “Christian  Science,”  nor 
the  god  of  “New  Thought,”  nor  the  god  of  “Theoso¬ 
phy,”  nor  the  god  of  Spiritualism,  nor  the  god  of 
“Modern  Philosophy,”  nor  the  God  of  “The  New 
Theology,”  but  the  God  of  this  one  and  only  really 
wonderful  Book,  unmistakably  God’s  own  Book,  the 
Bible. 


CHAPTER  X 


GOD  IS  RIGHTEOUS 

The  subject  of  this  chapter  is,  The  God  of  the  Bible: 
God  is  Righteous.  I  call  your  attention  in  the  begin¬ 
ning  of  the  consideration  of  this  fundamentally  im¬ 
portant  subject  to  twelve  passages  of  Scripture  that 
will  form  the  basis  of  our  setting  forth  of  the  God  of 
the  Bible  in  this  chapter.  It  was  difficult  to  reduce  to 
even  this  large  number  the  texts  that  crowd  in  upon 
us  when  one  thinks  of  this  aspect  of  the  character  of 
the  God  of  the  Bible,  for  both  the  Old  Testament  and 
the  New  Testament  are  full  of  this  great  theme. 

You  will  find  my  first  text  in  Ezra  9:15: 

‘'O  Jehovah,  the  God  of  Israel,  Thou  art 
righteous;  for  we  are  left  a  remnant  that  is 
escaped,  as  it  is  this  day :  behold,  we  are  before 
Thee  in  our  guiltiness;  for  none  can  stand  be¬ 
fore  Thee  because  of  this.’^ 

Now  turn  to  the  next  Book  in  the  Bible,  Nehemiah 
9:7,  8: 

‘‘Thou  art  Jehovah  the  God,  Who  didst 
choose  Abram,  and  broughtest  him  forth  out 
of  Ur  of  the  Chaldees,  and  gavest  him  the 
name  of  Abraham,  and  foundest  his  heart  faith¬ 
ful  before  Thee,  and  madest  a  covenant  with 
him  to  give  the  land  of  the  Canaanite,  the 

Hittite,  the  Amorite,  and  the  Perizzite,  and  the 

187 


THE  GOD  OF  THE  BIBLE 


1 88 

Jebusite,  and  the  Girgashite,  to  give  it  unto  his 
seed,  and  hast  performed  Thy  words;  for  Thou 
art  righteous/' 

You  will  find  the  third  text  in  Psalms  145 :  i,  5,  14- 
19: 

‘T  will  extol  Thee,  my  God,  O  King;  .  .  . 

(s) 

Of  the  glorious  majesty  of  Thine  honor. 

And  of  thy  wondrous  works  will  I  medi¬ 
tate.  .  .  . 

(14-19). 

Jehovah  upholdeth  all  that  fall, 

And  raiseth  up  all  those  that  are  bowed  down. 

The  eyes  of  all  wait  for  Thee; 

And  Thou  givest  them  their  food  in  due  sea¬ 
son. 

Thou  openest  Thy  hand, 

And  satisfiest  the  desire  of  every  living  thing. 

Jehovah  is  righteous  in  all  His  ways, 

And  gracious  in  all  His  works. 

Jehovah  is  nigh  unto  all  them  that  call  upon 
Him, 

To  all  that  call  upon  Him  in  truth. 

He  will  fulfil  the  desire  of  them  that  fear 
Him; 

He  also  will  hear  their  cry,  and  will  save 
them.” 

Turn  now  to  Dan.  9:  12-14: 

“And  He  (Jehovah)  hath  confirmed  His 
words,  which  He  spake  against  us,  and  against 
our  judges  that  judged  us,  by  bringing  upon 
us  a  great  evil;  for  under  the  whole  heaven 


GOD  IS  RIGHTEOUS 


189 

hath  not  been  done  as  hath  been  done  upon 
Jerusalem.  As  it  is  written  in  the  law  of 
Moses,  all  this  evil  is  come  upon  us;  yet  have 
we  not  entreated  the  favor  of  Jehovah,  our 
God,  that  we  should  turn  from  our  iniquities, 
and  have  discernment  in  Thy  truth.  Therefore 
hath  Jehovah  watched  over  the  evil,  and  brought 
it  upon  us;  for  Jehovah  our  God  is  righteous 
in  all  His  works  which  He  doeth,  and  we  have 
not  obeyed  His  voice.” 

Our  next  text  is  Ps.  98 :  1-3 : 

“Oh  sing  unto  Jehovah  a  new  song; 

For  He  hath  done  marvellous  things : 

His  right  hand,  and  His  Holy  arm,  hath 
wrought  salvation  for  Him. 

Jehovah  hath  made  known  His  salvation : 

His  righteousness  hath  He  openly  showed  in 
the  sight  of  the  nations. 

He  hath  remembered  his  lovingkindness  and 
His  faithfulness  toward  the  house  of  Israel: 

All  the  ends  of  the  earth  have  seen  the  sal¬ 
vation  of  our  God.” 

Now  turn  back  two  Psalms  to  Ps.  96:  11-13 : 

''Let  the  heavens  be  glad,  and  let  the  earth 
rejoice; 

Let  the  sea  roar,  and  the  fulness  thereof ; 

Let  the  field  exult,  and  all  that  is  therein; 

Then  shall  all  the  trees  of  the  wood  sing  for 
joy 

Before  Jehovah;  for  He  cometh  to  judge  the 
earth ; 

He  will  judge  the  world  with  righteousness. 


190 


THE  GOD  OF  THE  BIBLE 


And  the  peoples  with  His  truth/’ 

We  will  turn  now  to  the  words  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ  Himself,  as  found  in  Jno.  17:25: 

‘‘O  righteous  Father,  the  world  knew  Thee 
not,  but  I  knew  Thee;  and  these  knew  that 
Thou  didst  send  me.” 

Now  turn  to  one  of  the  most  important  passages 
on  this  subject  to  be  found  in  the  whole  Bible,  Rom. 
3:21-26: 

“But  now  apart  from  the  law  a  righteousness 
of  God  hath  been  manifested,  being  witnessed 
by  the  law  and  the  prophets;  even  the  right- 
eousness  of  God  through  faith  in  Jesus  Christ 
unto  all  them  that  believe;  for  there  is  no  dis¬ 
tinction;  for  all  have  sinned,  and  fall  short  of 
the  glory  of  God;  being  justified  freely  by  His 
grace  through  the  redemption  that  is  in  Christ 
Jesus  :  Whom  God  set  forth  to  he  a  propitiation, 
through  faith,  in  His  blood,  to  show  His  right¬ 
eousness  because  of  the  passing  over  of  the  sins 
done  aforetime,  in  the  forbearance  of  God;  for 
the  showing,  I  say,  of  His  righteousness  at  this 
present  season :  that  He  might  Himself  be  just, 
and  the  justifier  of  him  that  hath  faith  in 
Jesus.” 

The  Greek  word  rendered  *'just”  in  the  last  verse 
of  this  passage  is  precisely  the  same  word  that  is  else¬ 
where  rendered  '^righteous.”  It  is  rendered  '‘just”  in 
this  passage  to  show  that  it  is  from  the  same  root  as 
the  word  "-justifier,”  three  words  further  on. 

Now  turn  to  I  Jno.  1:9: 

“If  we  confess  our  sins.  He  is  faithful  and 


GOD  IS  RIGHTEOUS 


191 

righteous  to  forgive  us  our  sins,  and  to  cleanse 
us  from  all  unrighteousness.” 

The  three  remaining  texts  are  all  from  the  last  book 
in  the  Bible,  a  book  the  whole  theme  of  which  is  the 
righteousness  of  God.  The  first  of  them  is  Rev.  15: 
2-4 : 

*‘And  I  saw  as  it  were  a  sea  of  glass  mingled 
with  fire;  and  them  that  come  off  victorious 
from  the  beast,  and  from  his  image,  and  from 
the  number  of  his  name,  standing  by  the  sea 
of  glass,  having  harps  of  God.  And  they  sing 
the  song  of  Moses  the  servant  of  God,  and  the 
song  of  the  Lamb,  saying.  Great  and  marvel¬ 
lous  are  thy  works,  O  Lord  God,  the  Almighty; 
righteous  and  true  are  Thy  ways,  Thou  King 
of  the  ages.  Who  shall  not  fear,  O  Lord,  and 
glorify  Thy  Name?  for  Thou  Only  art  holy; 
for  all  the  nations  shall  come  and  worship  be¬ 
fore  Thee;  for  Thy  righteous  acts  have  been 
made  manifest^ 

Now  turn  to  the  next  chapter.  Rev.  16:4-7: 

“And  the  third  poured  out  his  bowl  into  the 
rivers  and  the  fountains  of  the  waters;  and  it 
became  blood.  And  I  heard  the  angel  of  the 
waters  saying.  Righteous  art  Thou,  Who  art 
and  Who  wast.  Thou  Holy  One,  because  Thou 
didst  thus  judge :  for  they  poured  out  the  blood 
of  saints  and  prophets,  and  blood  hast  thou 
given  them  to  drink:  they  are  worthy.  And 
I  heard  the  altar  saying.  Yea,  O  Lord  God,  the 
Almighty,  true  and  righteous  are  Thy  judg¬ 
ments.'' 


192 


THE  GOD  OF  THE  BIBLE 


Our  final  text  is  Rev.  19:1,  2: 

“After  these  things  I  heard  as  it  were  a  great 
voice  of  a  great  multitude  in  heaven,  saying, 
Hallelujah;  Salvation^  and  glory,  and  power, 
belong  to  our  God:  for  true  and  righteous  are 
his  judgments.” 

/.  God  Is  Righteous. 

In  our  first  text  and  in  the  second,  and  in  many 
others  that  I  have  just  read,  and  in  still  others  that 
I  have  been  forced  to  omit,  we  have  been  told  in  so 
many  words  that  Jehovah,  the  God  of  the  Bible,  the 
God  of  both  the  Old  Testament  and  of  the  New  Testa¬ 
ment,  is  Righteous.  In  our  third  text  we  read  “Je¬ 
hovah  is  righteous  in  all  his  waysf^  and  in  our  fourth 
text  it  is  said  that  *Oehovah,  our  God,  is  righteous  in 
all  His  work,  that  He  doeth.”  Heaven  and  earth,  men 
and  angels,  inspired  legislators,  prophets^  psalmists, 
apostles  and  our  Lord  Jesus  Himself,  join  in  one  great 
and  triumphant  Hallelujah  Chorus  that  Jehovah  our 
God  the  Almighty,  the  God  of  the  Bible,  is  a  Righteous 
God. 

11.  What  Does  ''Righteous”  Mean? 

We  come  now  to  the  all-important  question.  What 
does  the  word  Righteous  mean  as  used  in  the  Bible? 
We  go,  of  course,  to  the  Bible  itself  for  an  answer 
to  that  question.  The  only  definitions  of  Bible  terms 
that  are  of  any  real  value  are  Bible  definitions.  And 


GOD  IS  RIGHTEOUS 


193 

the  Bible  defines  in  a  very  clear  and  very  definite  and 
very  explicit  way  just  what  ‘'righteous”  means. 

Turn  to  Ezek.  18:5: 

“But  if  a  man  he  just,  and  do  that  which  is 
lawful  and  right” 

Here  the  word  “just,”  instead  of  “righteous”  is 
found  in  both  the  Authorized  Version  and  Revised 
Version,  but  it  is  the  same  word  in  the  Hebrew  which 
is  elsewhere  translated  “Righteous.”  Let  me  stop  here 
a  moment  to  say  that  right  through  the  Old  Testa¬ 
ment,  in  both  versions,  the  same  Hebrew  word  is  some¬ 
times  translated  “righteous”  and  sometimes  “just,”  and 
that  also  right  through  the  New  Testament  the  same 
Greek  word  is  sometimes  translated  “righteous”  and 
sometimes  “just.”  “Righteousness”  and  “Justice”  are 
not  two  different  attributes  of  God;  but  the  two  differ¬ 
ent  words  are  used  for  precisely  the  same  thing. 
“Righteous”  is  the  preferable  word  as  it  conforms  more 
exactly  to  the  exact  derivation  of  the  word.  But  to 
go  back  to  the  definition  of  “Righteous”  in  Ezek.  18:5, 
which  we  have  just  read,  we  see  that  to  he  Righteous 
is  to  have  that  character  that  leads  one  to  always  *'do 
that  which  is  lawful  and  right”  We  find  practically 
the  same  definition  of  “Righteous,”  but  partly  in  a 
negative  form,  in  Zeph.  3:5: 

“Jehovah  in  the  midst  of  her  is  righteous; 
He  will  not  do  iniquity;  every  morning  doth  He 
bring  His  justice  to  light,  He  faileth  not.” 

The  Hebrew  word  translated  in  the  Old  Testament 
sometimes  “righteous,”  and  sometimes  “just,”  accord¬ 
ing  to  its  etymology,  means  “right,”  or  “straight.” 


194 


THE  GOD  OF  THE  BIBLE 


The  etymology  of  our  English  word  Righttons^^  is 
precisely  the  same.  The  Greek  word  used  in  the  New 
Testament,  and  translated  sometimes  ‘‘Righteous,”  and 
sometimes  “Just,”  means  according  to  its  etymology 
that  which  is  conformed  to  custom  or  usage.  But  the 
Greek  word  as  used  in  the  New  Testament  derives  its 
significance  from  its  being  used  in  the  Greek  transla¬ 
tion  of  the  Old  Testament  that  was  in  common  use 
in  our  Lord’s  day  and  the  days  of  the  apostles  (The 
Septuagint)  to  render  the  Hebrew  word  meaning 
“Right”  or  “Straight.”  The  ^^Righteousness"'  or  ^'Jus¬ 
tice""  of  the  God  of  the  Bible,  therefore,  is  that  attri¬ 
bute  of  God  that  leads  Him  always  and  under  all  cir¬ 
cumstances,  to  do  that  which  is  ^Wighf’  or  ''straight."" 

The  Righteousness  of  God  is  not  to  be  limited,  as  is 
so  often  done  in  modern  Theological  usage,  to  God’s 
punitive  justice.  God’s  punitive  justice  is,  as  we  shall 
shortly  see,  only  one  manifestation  of  the  “Justice” 
or  “Righteousness”  of  God;  and  it  is  not  the  mani¬ 
festation  of  God’s  Righteousness  that  is  most  promi¬ 
nent  in  the  Bible  usage  of  the  w'ord. 

God’s  Righteousness  is  closely  akin  to  His  Holiness, 
but  they  are  not  exactly  the  same.  Holiness  seems 
to  have  more  reference  to  God’s  character  as  He  is 
in  Himself :  Righteousness  to  His  character  as  mani¬ 
fested  in  His  dealing  with  others. 

III.  How  the  Righteousness  of  God  Manifests  Itself. 

This  brings  us  directly  to  the  question,  and  it  is  a 
tremendously  important  question,  "How  does  the 
Righteousness  of  God  manifest  itself  f""  Here  we  must 


GOD  IS  RIGHTEOUS 


195 


walk  very  carefully  and  go  by  the  Book  itself  every 
step  of  the  way.  There  are  many  preachers  and  theo¬ 
logians  and  dreamers  of  many  kinds  who  do  not  go 
by  the  Book,  but  chase  the  iridescent  but  unsubstan¬ 
tial  bubbles  blown  by  their  own  scintillating  fancies 
and  wind  up  in  “No  Man’s  Land.”  But  let  us  turn 
to  the  Book  of  God  and  then  we  will  get  somewhere. 
Indeed  we  will  find  ourselves  in  a  country  fine  and 
fair,  lying  down  in  “green  pastures,”  and  “walking 
beside  the  waters  of  quiet  rest.” 

I.  First  of  all,  the  Righteousness  of  God  manifests 
itself  in  His  loving  righteousness  and  hating  iniquity. 
Read  Ps.  1 1 :  4-7  : 

“Jehovah  is  in  His  holy  temple; 

Jehovah,  His  throne  is  in  heaven; 

His  eyes  behold,  His  eyelids  try  the  children 
of  men. 

Jehovah  trieth  the  righteous. 

But  the  wicked  and  him  that  loveth  violence 
His  soul  hateth. 

Upon  the  wicked  he  will  rain  snares; 

Fire  and  brimstone  and  burning  wind  shall 
be  the  portion  of  their  cup. 

For  Jehovah  is  righteous;  He  loveth  right¬ 
eousness: 

The  upright  shall  behold  His  face.” 

God  is  infinitely  Righteous,  therefore  He  loves  right¬ 
eousness  with  an  infinite  love,  and  hates  iniquity  in 
all  its  forms  with  an  infinite  hatred. 

It  is  thought  by  some  that  since  God  is  Love,  there 
can  be  no  such  thing  as  hatred  of  any  kind  in  God. 
Ah,  it  is  just  because  God  is  Love,  infinite  Love,  that 


196  THE  GOD  OF  THE  BIBLE 

He  hates  with  infinite  hatred  all  that  harms  those  whom 
He  loves.  He  hates  sin  with  infinite  hatred  because 
He  loves  the  sinner  with  infinite  love.  I  hate  tuber¬ 
culosis  with  intense  hatred  because  I  love  my  daugh¬ 
ter  upon  whom  the  foul  thing  has  fastened  itself,  and 
the  Righteous  God  not  only  loves  righteousness  with 
infinite  love,  but  hates  all  iniquity  with  infinite  hatred, 
both  because  He  is  Righteous  and  because  He  is  love. 
The  hatred  of  sin  of  the  Righteous  God  of  the  Bible 
is  as  intense  as  is  His  love  of  Righteousness.  This 
sweet,  sentimental,  sickish,  silly,  palliating  palaver 
about  sin  that  is  so  common  to-day  among  a  certain 
type  of  would-be  social  philosophers  and  ethical  teach¬ 
ers  arises  from  a  sad  lack  in  their  moral  make-up,  a 
lack  of  real. and  Godlike  righteousness;  they  are  moral 
anaemics.  A  really  righteous  man,  a  man  of  Godlike 
righteousness,  hates  sin  as  really  and  as  intensely  as 
He  loves  righteousness. 

2.  In  the  second  place.  The  Righteousness  of  God 
manifests  itself  in  His  visiting  upon  sinners  the  pun¬ 
ishment  due  to  their  sins.  This  great  fact,  which  we 
all  do  well  to  always  bear  in  mind,  comes  out  again 
and  again  in  the  Word  of  God;  for  example,  turn  to 
Ex.  9:  23-27 : 

^‘And  Moses  stretched  forth  his  rod  toward 
heaven;  and  Jehovah  sent  thunder  and  hail, 
and  fire  ran  down  unto  the  earth;  and  Jehovah 
rained  hail  upon  the  land  of  Egypt.  So  there 
was  hail,  and  fire  mingled  with  the  hail,  very 
grievous,  such  as  had  not  been  in  all  the  land 
of  Egypt  since  it  became  a  nation.  And  the 


GOD  IS  RIGHTEOUS 


197 

hail  smote  throughout  all  the  land  of  Egypt 
all  that  was  in  the  field,  both  man  and  beast; 
and  the  hail  smote  every  herb  of  the  field,  and 
brake  every  tree  of  the  field.  Only  in  the  land 
of  Goshen,  where  the  children  of  Israel  were, 
was  there  no  hail.  And  Pharaoh  sent,  and 
called  for  Moses  and  Aaron,  and  said  unto 
them,  I  have  sinned  this  time :  Jehovah  is  right¬ 
eous,  and  I  and  my  people  are  wicked.’^ 

The  same  important  truth  is  also  found  in  II  Chron. 
12:  5,  6: 

“Now  Shemaiah  the  prophet  came  to  Reho- 
boam,  and  to  the  princes  of  Judah,  that  were 
gathered  together  to  Jerusalem  because  of 
Shishak,  and  said  unto  them,  Thus  saith  Je¬ 
hovah,  Ye  have  forsaken  me,  therefore  have 
I  also  left  you  in  the  land  of  Shishak.  Then 
the  princes  of  Israel  and  the  king  humbled  them¬ 
selves;  and  they  said,  Jehovah  is  righteous.” 
Daniel  proclaims  the  same  truth  in  Dan.  9:  12-14: 

“And  He  hath  confirmed  His  words,  which 
He  spake  against  us,  and  against  our  judges 
that  judged  us,  by  bringing  upon  us  a  great  evil; 
for  under  the  whole  heaven  hath  not  been  done 
as  hath  been  done  upon  Jerusalem.  As  it  is 
written  in  the  law  of  Moses,  all  this  evil  is 
come  upon  us;  yet  have  we  not  entreated  the 
favor  of  Jehovah,  our  God,  that  we  should 
turn  from  our  iniquities,  and  have  discernment 
in  Thy  truth.  Therefore  hath  Jehovah  watched 
over  the  evil,  and  brought  it  upon  us;  for  Je- 


198 


THE  GOD  OF  THE  BIBLE 


hovah  our  God  is  righteous  in  all  His  works 
which  He  doeth,  and  we  have  not  obeyed  His 
voice.” 

We  find  it  set  forth  in  a  most  vivid  and  impressive 
way  in  the  last  book  in  the  Bible,  Rev.  16:5,  6: 

“And  I  heard  the  angel  of  the  waters  saying, 
Righteous  art  Thou,  Who  art  and  Who  wast, 
Thou  Holy  One,  because  Thou  didst  thus  judge: 
for  they  poured  out  the  blood  of  saints  and 
prophets,  and  blood  hast  Thou  given  them  to 
drink:  they  are  worthy T 

Since  God  is  Righteous  we  may  set  it  down  as  abso¬ 
lutely  certain  that  if  we  sin  we  must  suffer,  and  suffer 
for  every  sin  we  commit.  This  universe  in  which  we 
live  is  governed  at  all  times  and  under  all  circumstances 
by  a  God  Who  is  absolutely,  unwaveringly  and  un¬ 
ceasingly  Righteous.  So  it  is  certain  that  by  any 
wrong  act  on  our  part,  great  or  small,  that  we  commit, 
we  are  bound  to  be  losers.  In  every  instance  a  right¬ 
eous  God  must  and  will  visit  upon  every  sinner,  the 
punishment  due  his  sin. 

3.  In  the  third  place,  the  Righteousness  of  God 
manifests  itself  in  His  bestowing  upon  the  righteous 
the  reward  due  their  faithfulness.  This,  we  are  told 
over  and  over  again  in  God’s  own  revelation  of  Him¬ 
self.  the  Bible,  in  a  variety  of  phraseology,  but  with 
one  meaning,  e.  g.,  we  read  in  H  Tim.  4:8: 

“Henceforth  there  is  laid  up  for  me  the 
crown  of  righteousness,  which  the  Lord,  the 
righteo'us  Judge,  shall  give  to  me  at  that  day; 
and  not  to  me  only,  but  also  to  all  them  that 
have  loved  His  appearing.” 


GOD  IS  RIGHTEOUS 


199 

Turning  back  to  the  Old  Testament  we  read  in 
I  Kings  8:32: 

“Then  hear  Thou  in  heaven,  and  do,  and 
judge  thy  servants,  condemning  the  wicked,  to 
bring  His  way  upon  His  Own  head,  and  jus¬ 
tifying  the  righteous,  to  give  Him  according  to 
His  righteousness  ” 

And  the  Psalmist  sings  in  Ps.  7:9-11: 

“Oh  let  the  wickedness  of  the  wicked  come 
to  an  end,  but  establish  Thou  the  righteous : 

For  the  righteous  God  trieth  the  minds  and 
hearts. 

My  shield  is  with  God, 

Who  saveth  the  upright  in  heart. 

God  is  a  righteous  Judge, 

Yea,  a  God  that  hath  indignation  every  day.” 

While  we  may  be  sure  that  if  we  sin  we  shall  suffer, 
because  God  is  a  Righteous  God,  we  may  be  equally 
sure  that  if  we  do  any  righteous  act,  great  or  small, 
we  shall  not  miss  our  full  reward.  As  our  Lord  Jesus 
put  it  in  Matt.  10:42: 

“And  whosoever  shall  give  to  drink  unto  one 
of  these  little  ones  a  cup  of  cold  water  only,  in 
the  name  of  a  disciple,  verily  I  say  unto  you 
he  shall  in  no  wise  lose  his  reward.” 

4.  In  the  fourth  place,  Th,e  Righteousness  of  God 
is  manifested  in  His  protecting  and  delivering  His 
people  from  all  their  adversaries.  The  Book  of  Psalms 
is  especially  rich  in  the  setting  forth  of  this  precious 
truth.  Read  Ps.  98:  1-3: 

“Oh  sing  unto  Jehovah  a  new  song; 

For  he  hath  done  marvellous  things: 


200  THE  GOD  OF  THE  BIBLE 

His  right  hand,  and  His  Holy  arm,  hath 
wrought  salvation  for  Him. 

Jehovah  hath  made  known  His  salvation: 

His  righteousness  hath  He  openly  showed  in 
the  sight  of  the  nations. 

He  hath  remembered  His  lovingkindness  an(f 
His  faithfulness  toward  the  house  of  Israel; 

All  the  ends  of  the  earth  have  seen  the  sal¬ 
vation  of  our  God.’’ 

Now  read  Ps.  103:6: 

“Jehovah  executeth  righteousness,  and  judg¬ 
ment  for  all  that  are  oppressed.^^ 

Turn  to  Ps.  129 :  1-4 : 

“Many  a  time  have  they  afflicted  me  from 
my  youth  up. 

Let  Israel  now  say. 

Many  a  time  have  they  afflicted  me  from  my 
youth  up : 

Yet  they  have  not  prevailed  against  me. 

The  plowers  plowed  upon  my  back; 

They  made  long  their  furrows. 

Jehovah  is  righteous: 

He  hath  cut  asunder  the  cords  of  the  wicked.” 
Turning  now  to  the  New  Testament  we  read  in  II 
Thess.  1:6,  7 : 

“If  so  be  that  it  is  a  righteous  thing  with 
God  to  recompense  affliction  to  them  that  afflict 
you,  and  to  you  that  are  afflicted  rest  with  us, 
at  the  revelation  of  the  Lord  Jesus  from  heaven 
with  the  angels  of  his  power  in  flaming  fire.” 

In  modern  theological  discussions  we  hear  more  of 
the  Justice,  or  the  Righteousness,  of  God  in  its  rela- 


GOD  IS  RIGHTEOUS 


201 


tion  to  the  punishment  of  sinners;  but  in  the  Bible 
we  read  more  of  it  in  its  relation  to  the  protection  of 
His  people.  In  modern  usage,  the  Righteousness  of 
God  is  more  frequently  held  up  as  an  attribute  of  God 
at  which  sinners  should  tremble;  but  in  the  Bible  it 
is  constantly  dwelt  upon  as  an  attribute  of  God  in 
which  His  people  should  rejoice  and  be  confident. 
This  we  see,  for  example,  in  Ps.  96:  11-13: 

''Let  the  heavens  he  glad,  and  let  the  earth 
rejoice; 

Let  the  sea  roar,  and  the  fulness  thereof; 

Let  the  field  exult,  and  all  that  is  therein; 

Then  shall  all  the  trees  of  the  wood  sing  for 
joy 

Before  Jehovah;  for  He  cometh  to  judge  the 
earth ; 

He  will  judge  the  world  with  righteousness, 

And  the  peoples  with  His  truth.” 

The  prophet  Jeremiah,  even  though  he  is  oftentimes 
called  “the  weeping  prophet,”  sings  the  same  song  of 
optimistic  confidence  in  the  Righteous  God  Who  pro¬ 
tects  and  delivers  His  faithful  people  from  all  their 
adversaries  and  oppressors. 

We  read  in  Jer.  9:24: 

“But  let  him  that  glorieth  glory  in  this,  that 
he  hath  understanding,  and  knoweth  Me,  that 
/  am  Jehovah,  Who  exerciseth  lovingkindness , 
justice,  and  righteousness,  in  the  earth:  for  in 
these  things  I  delight,  saith  Jehovah.” 

Turn  to  the  Psalms  again,  Ps.  116:5, 

“Gracious  is  Jehovah,  and  righteous; 

Yea,  our  God  is  merciful. 


202 


THE  GOD  OF  THE  BIBLE 


Jehovah  preserveth  the  simple: 

I  was  brought  low  and  he  saved  me.” 

Again  the  sweet  singer  of  Israel  chants  the  same 
paean  of  triumphant  praise  in  a  righteous  God  in  Ps. 
145:  15-19: 

'‘The  eyes  of  all  wait  for  Thee; 

And  Thou  givest  them  their  food  in  due 
season. 

Thou  openest  Thy  hand, 

And  satis fiest  the  desire  of  every  living  thing. 
Jehovah  is  righteous  in  all  His  ways, 

And  gracious  in  all  His  works. 

Jehovah  is  nigh  unto  all  them  that  call  upon 
Him, 

To  all  that  call  upon  Him  in  truth. 

He  will  fulfil  the  desire  of  them  that  fear 
Him; 

He  also  will  hear  their  cry,  and  save  them.” 
And  the  song  of  both  Moses,  the  stern  law-giver, 
and  of  the  Lamb,  the  gracious  Saviour,  as  described 
in  the  last  book  in  the  Bible,  has  the  same  jubilant 
confidence  in  a  Righteous  God.  We  read  in  Rev. 

15:3: 

"And  they  sang  the  song  of  Moses  the  serv¬ 
ant  of  God,  and  the  song  of  the  Lamb,  saying, 
Great  and  marvellous  are  Thy  works,  O  Lord 
God,  the  Almighty ;  righteous  and  true  are  Thy 
ways,  Thou  King  of  the  ages.” 

Even  the  Righteousness  of  God  in  the  punishment  of 
the  sinner  is  frequently  spoken  of  in  its  relation  to  and 
its  connection  with  the  deliverance  and  the  avenging 
of  His  people.  This  we  see  in  II  Thess.  i :  4-7 : 


GOD  IS  RIGHTEOUS 


203 


“We  ourselves  glory  in  you  in  the  churches 
of  God  for  your  patience  and  faith  in  all  your 
persecutions  and  in  the  afflictions  which  ye  en¬ 
dure;  which  is  a  manifest  token  of  the  right¬ 
eous  judgment  of  God;  to  the  end  that  ye  may 
be  counted  worthy  of  the  kingdom  of  God,  for 
which  ye  also  suffer :  if  so  be  that  "f/ is  a  right¬ 
eous  thing  with  God  to  recompense  affliction 
to  them  that  afflict  you,  and  to  you  that  are 
afflicted  rest  with  us,  at  the  revelation  of  the 
Lord  Jesus  from  heaven  with  the  angels  of  His 
power.” 

Read  also  Rev.  19:  i,  2: 

“After  these  things  I  heard  as  it  were  a  great 
voice  of  a  great  multitude  in  heaven,  saying, 
Hallelujah;  Salvation,  and  glory,  and  power, 
belong  to  our  God :  for  true  and  righteous  are 
His  judgments ;  for  He  hath  judged  the  great 
harlot,  her  that  corrupted  the  earth  with  her 
fornication,  and  He  hath  avenged  the  blood  of 
His  servants  at  her  hand” 

Read  still  another  passage  in  this  last  book  in  the 
Bible,  whose  theme  is  very  largely  the  Righteousness 
of  God.  Rev.  16:4-7: 

“And  the  third  poured  out  his  bowl  into  the 
rivers  and  the  fountains  of  the  waters;  and  it 
became  blood.  And  I  heard  the  angel  of  the 
waters  saying,  Righteous  art  Thou,  Who  art 
and  Who  wast,  Thou  Holy  One,  because  Thou 
didst  thus  judge :  for  they  poured  out  the  blood 
of  saints  and  prophets,  and  blood  hast  Thou 
given  them  to  drink:  they  are  worthy.  And 


204  the  god  of  the  BIBLE 

I  heard  the  altar  saying,  Yea,  O  Lord  God,  the 
Almighty,  true  and  righteous  are  Thy  judg- 
mentsT 

Here  it  is  the  vindication  and  the  avenging  of  His 
people,  rather  than  the  suffering  of  the  wicked,  that  is 
the  prominent  thought. 

5.  In  the  fifth  place.  The  Righteousness  of  God  is 
manifested  in  God's  always  keeping  His  promises  to 
the  very  letter.  The  Levites  in  Nehemiah's  day  saw 
that  and  declared  it  way  back  there,  twenty-three  hun¬ 
dred  years  ago.  They  sang  to  Jehovah  in  Neh.  9 :  7,  8 : 

^‘Thou  art  Jehovah  the  God,  Who  didst 
choose  Abram,  and  broughtest  him  forth  out  of 
Ur  of  the  Chaldees,  and  gavest  him  the  name 
of  Abraham,  and  foundest  his  heart  faithful 
before  thee,  and  modest  a  covenant  with  him 
to  give  the  land  of  the  Canaanite,  the  Hittite, 
the  Amorite,  and  the  Perizzite,  and  the  Jebusite, 
and  the  Girgashite,  to  give  it  unto  his  seed,  and 
hast  performed  Thy  words;  for  Thou  art  right¬ 
eous," 

Every  promise  of  God  is  absolutely  sure;  for  He 
is  a  Righteous  God,  therefore  He  will  keep  His  every 
word  and  ftdfil  His  every  promise  to  the  last  letter. 

“How  firm  a  foundation,  ye  saints  of  the 
Lord, 

Is  laid  for  your  faith  in  His  excellent 
Word !” 

Why  ?  Because  God  is  Righteous,  and  therefore  He 
will  not,  and  He  cannot  lie. 

6.  In  the  sixth  place, Righteousness  of  God  is 
manifested  in  His  proznding  a  propitiation  when  sin 


GOD  IS  RIGHTEOUS 


205 

was  forgiven  and  in  His  justifying  him  that  hath  faith 
in  the  substitute  Saviour  Who  made  the  propitiation. 

We  read  in  Rom.  3:25,  26: 

''Whom  God  set  forth  to  he  a  propitiation, 
through  faith,  in  His  blood,  to  show  His  right¬ 
eousness  because  of  the  passing  over  of  the 
sins  done  aforetime,  in  the  forbearance  of  God; 
for  the  showing,  I  say,  of  His  righteousness 
at  this  present  season:  that  He  might  Himself 
be  just,  and  the  justifier  of  him  that  hath  in 
JesusS 

God  is  a  Righteous  God  and  therefore  must  punish 
sin,  for  that  is  the  right  thing  to  do.  Therefore,  if 
the  sinner  himself  is  forgiven,  the  punishment  of  his 
sins  must  fall  somewhere  else;  it  must  fall  upon  a 
lawful  substitute.  There  is  but  one  Person  in  all  the 
universe  upon  whom  the  punishment  could  justly  fall 
and  Who  could  at  the  same  time  be  a  sufficient  sac¬ 
rifice;  that  is,  the  Only  One  Who  is  at  the  same  time 
both  God  and  Man,  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord.  We  saw 
in  the  eighth  chapter,  the  chapter  “God  is  Holy,”  that 
the  atonement  made  in  the  death  of  Jesus  Christ  finds 
its  first  demand  in  the  infinite  Holiness  of  the  only 
true  God,  the  God  of  the  Bible;  but  it  also  finds  its 
demand  in  the  infinite  Righteousness  of  God.  A  Right¬ 
eous  God  must  punish  sin,  because  that  is  the  right 
thing  to  do;  and  therefore,  if  you  and  I  are  spared, 
Jesus  Christ  must  bear  the  penalty  in  our  place.  This 
is  beautifully  brought  out  way,  way  back,  twenty-six 
hundred  years  ago,  in  those  very  dark  and  unenlight¬ 
ened  ages,  when  “our  wonderful  modern  universities” 
were  not  even  dreamed  of,  in  Isa.  53:6: 


206 


THE  GOD  OF  THE  BIBLE 


*‘A11  we  like  sheep  have  gone  astray :  we  have 
turned  every  one  to  his  own  way;  and  Jehovah 
hath  made  to  strike  on  Him  the  iniquity  of  us 
all/’ 

^But  that  is  not  all.  Since  Christ  Jesus  has  borne 
the  penalty  of  the  sins  of  all  who  put  their  confidence 
in  Him  as  their  Substitute  Saviour,  God,  because  He 
is  Righteous,  must  justify  every  one  who  has  faith 
in  Jesus.  So,  in  the  atoning  death  of  His  Son,  Who 
is  God  manifest  in  the  flesh,  God  is  seen  as  Just  (or 
Righteous)  and  the  Justifier  (or  the  One  Who  de¬ 
clares  righteous)  of  every  one  who  believes  in  Jesus. 
Oh,  how  glad  I  am  that  the  God  of  the  Bible,  the 
Only  true  God,  is  Righteous.  That  fact  makes  me 
absolutely  sure  that  God  has  absolutely  nothing  in 
His  account  books  against  me;  for  Jesus  Christ  settled 
my  account,  and  a  righteous  God  will  not  ask  that 
the  same  account  be  settled  twice.  Do  you  take  that  ii^ 
7.  Just  once  more,  in  the  seventh  place,  The  Rigm- 
eousness  of  God  is  manifested  in  the  immediate  for¬ 
giveness  of  the  sins  of  every  believer  in  Jesus  Christ, 
when  he  confesses  his  sins  to  God.  John  states  this 
definitely  and  clearly  and  beautifully  and  forcefully 
in  what  Avas  perhaps  the  last  book  to  be  written  of  all 
the  sixty-six  books  that  make  up  the  Bible,  I  John. 
Read  I  Jno.  1:9: 

“If  we  confess  our  sins.  He  is  faithful  and 
righteous  to  forgive  us  our  sins,  and  to  cleanse 
us  from  all  unrighteousness.” 

The  Authorized  Version  reads  that  God  is  “Faith¬ 
ful  and  just,”  but  the  word  translated  “Just”  in  this 
verse  is  precisely  the  same  word  that  is  elsewhere  trans- 


GOD  IS  RIGHTEOUS  207 

lated  “Righteous,”  and  it  should  be  so  translated  here. 
Not  only  the  faithfulness  of  God  but  the  Righteousness 
of  God  is  pledged  to  the  forgiveness  of  every  sin  of 
the  believer  the  moment  he  confesses  it  to  God.  Many 
a  Christian  wanders  in  darkness  and  gloom  for  days, 
because  in  a  moment  of  weakness  he  has  permitted 
some  sin  to  come  into  his  life.  That  is  entirely  un¬ 
necessary.  The  moment  we  discover  that  we  have 
sinned  we  should  hurry  away  to  God  {not  hurry  away 
from  God;  no,  hurry  away  to  God)  and  fully,  and 
freely  and  frankly  confess  our  sin  to  Him,  without 
any  attempt  at  self-justification  or  at  palliation  of  our 
wickedness,  and  then  know  that  God  has  put  away  that 
sin  forever,  and  then — praise  God! — there  is  not  one 
smallest  cloud  between  us  and  God,  for  fellowship  is 
completely  restored  just  as  if  we  had  never  sinned; 
for  God  is  Righteous  and  has  pledged  Himself,  and 
pledged  His  Word,  and  pledged  the  atoning  blood  of 
Jesus  Christ  to  forgive  our  every  sin  the  moment  it 
is  confessed  to  Him.  Thus  we  can  walk  in  the  cloud¬ 
less  sunshine  of  fellowship  with  the  God  of  the  Bible 
every  day  and  every  hour,  no  matter  how  weak  we  may 
be,  or  how  sad  our  fall  may  have  been. 

“And  He  walks  with  me. 

And  He  talks  with  me, 

And  He  tells  me  that  I  am  His  friend.” 

Oh,  let  me  read  it  once  more  from  the  sure  Word 
of  God,  I  Jno.  1:9: 

“If  we  confess  our  sins.  He  is  faithful  and 
Righteous  to  forgive  us  our  sins,  and  to  cleanse 
us  from  all  unrighteousness.^* 


CHAPTER  XI 


GOD  IS  ABUNDANT  IN  LOVINGKINDNESS,  OR  MERCY 

The  general  subject  of  this  chapter  is  The  God  of  the 
Bible :  The  God  of  the  Bible  as  distinguished  from  the 
god  of  “Christian  Science,”  and  the  god  of  “Theoso¬ 
phy,”  and  the  god  of  “New  Thought,”  and  the  god 
of  Spiritualism,  and  the  God  of  Unitarianism,  and  the 
God  of  “the  New  Theology,”  and  the  God  of  Mod¬ 
ern  Philosophy  and  the  god  of  “Modernism”  in  gen¬ 
eral. 

The  particular  subject  of  this  chapter  is  The  God  of 
the  Bible:  God  is  abundant  in  Lovingkindness  (or, 
Mercy). 

Let  me  read  to  you  in  the  beginning  of  our  study  of 
this  subject  nineteen  passages  from  the  Word  of  God, 
that  will  be  the  foundation  stones,  tried  and  true, 
upon  which  the  whole  superstructure  of  the  chapter 
will  be  erected.  Nineteen  passages  of  Scripture,  some 
of  them  of  several  verses  each  and  one  of  seven  verses, 
may  seem  like  an  inordinate  number  of  texts;  but  as 
I  searched  the  Scriptures  on  this  subject  and  pondered 
the  verses  in  the  Bible  on  this  subject  (in  which  the 
Word  of  God  abounds)  it  was  difficult  to  reduce 
them  even  to  nineteen;  and  I  know  they  will  not  be 
wearisome,  but  rather  the  most  attention- fastening  and 

gladdening  and  thrilling  part  of  the  entire  chapter,  and 

208 


GOD  IS  ABUNDANT  IN  MERCY  209 

the  entire  chapter  aims  only  to  interpret  their  teaching 
on  the  great  theme  that  we  have  before  us. 

You  will  find  my  first  text  in  Ps.  103:8: 

‘‘Jehovah  is  merciful  and  gracious, 

Slow  to  anger,  and  abundant  in  lovingkind- 
nessd' 

Now  turn  to  another  Psalm,  Ps.  62:12: 

“Also  unto  Thee,  0  Lord,  belong eth  loving- 
kindness; 

For  Thou  renderest  to  every  man  according 
to  his  work.’^ 

Turn  now  to  still  another  Psalm,  Ps.  145 : 8: 

“Jehovah  is  gracious,  and  merciful; 

Slow  to  anger,  and  of  great  lozingkindncssT 

We  now  turn  back  to  one  of  the  oldest  books  in  the 
Bible,  Deut.  4:31: 

^'For  Jehovah  Thy  God  is  a  merciful  God; 
He  will  not  fail  thee,  neither  destroy  thee,  nor 
forget  the  covenant  of  thy  fathers  which  he 
sware  unto  them.” 

Our  next  text  is  from  the  New  Testament  from 
Paul.  He  quotes  the  Old  Testament  and  then  makes 
a  comment  of  his  own,  Rom.  9:15,  18: 

“For  he  saith  to  Moses,  I  will  have  mercy  on 
zvhoni  I  have  mercy,  and  I  will  have  compas¬ 
sion  on  whom  1  have  compassion.  ...  So  then 
He  hath  mercy  on  whom  He  will,  and  whom 
he  will  he  hardeneth.” 

We  will  now  turn  back  again  to  the  Old  Testament, 
Deut.  7:9: 

“Know  therefore  that  Jehovah  thy  God,  He 
is  God,  the  faithful  God,  Who  keepeth  covenant 


210 


THE  GOD  OF  THE  BIBLE 


and  lovingkindness  with  them  that  love  Him 
and  keep  His  commandments  to  a  thousand 
generations.” 

Turn  now  to  the  second  book  in  the  Bible,  Ex.  20: 
5>  6: 

“Thou  shalt  not  bow  down  thyself  unto 
them,  nor  serve  them;  for  I  Jehovah  thy  God 
am  a  jealous  God,  visiting  the  iniquity  of  the 
fathers  upon  the  children,  upon  the  third  and 
upon  the  fourth  generation  of  them  that  hate 
Me,  and  showing  lovingkindness  unto  thou¬ 
sands,  (i.  e.,  a  thousand  generations)  of  them 
that  love  Me  and  keep  My  commandments.” 

The  next  text  is  Ps.  103:  ii,  17: 

“For  as  the  heavens  are  high  above  the  earth. 

So  great  is  His  lovingkindness  toward  them 
that  fear  Him.  .  .  . 

•  •  •  •  •  • 

But  the  lovingkindness  of  Jehovah  is  from 
everlasting  to  everlasting  upon  them  that  fear 
Him, 

And  His  righteousness  unto  children's  chil¬ 
dren.” 

We  turn  now  to  one  of  the  historical  books  of  The 
Old  Testament,  II  Chron.  6:14: 

“And  he  said,  O  Jehovah,  the  God  of  Israel, 
there  is  no  God  like  Thee,  in  heaven,  or  on 
earth;  Who  keepest  covenant  and  lovingkind¬ 
ness  with  Thy  servants  that  walk  before  Thee 
with  all  their  heart.” 

Our  next  text  is  from  the  book  of  Proverbs,  Prov. 
28 : 13 : 


GOD  IS  ABUNDANT  IN  MERCY  21 1 


“He  that  covereth  his  transgressions  shall  not 
prosper ; 

But  whoso  confesseth  and  forsaketh  them 
shall  obtain  mercy.” 

The  next  text  is  Ps.  32 :  10: 

“Many  sorrows  shall  be  to  the  wicked; 

But  he  that  trusteth  in  Jehovah,  lovingkind¬ 
ness  shall  compass  him  about.” 

Our  next  text  is  from  still  another  Psalm,  Ps.  86:5: 

“For  Thou,  Lord,  art  good,  and  ready  to 
forgive, 

A'nd  abundant  in  lovingkindness  unto  all 
them  that  call  upon  Thee.” 

Now  turn  to  the  book  of  Numbers,  Num.  14:  18-20; 

‘'Jehovah  is  slow  to  anger,  and  abundant  in 
lovingkindness,  forgiving  iniquity  and  trans¬ 
gression;  and  that  will  by  no  means  clear  the 
guilty,  visiting  the  iniquity  of  the  fathers  upon 
the  children,  upon  the  third  and  upon  the  fourth 
generation.  Pardon,  I  pray  Thee,  the  iniquity 
of  this  people  according  unto  the  greatness  of 
Thy  lovingkindness  and  according  as  Thou  hast 
forgiven  this  people,  from  Egypt  even  until 
now.  And  Jehovah  said,  I  have  pardoned  ac¬ 
cording  to  thy  Word.” 

We  come  now  to  the  prophets,  Isa.  55  •  7* 

“Let  the  wicked  forsake  his  way,  and  the 
unrighteous  his  thoughts;  and  let  him  return 
unto  Jehovah,  and  He  will  have  mercy  upon 
him;  and  to  our  God,  for  He  will  abundantly 
pardon.” 


212  THE  GOD  OF  THE  BIBLE 

Turn  to  still  another  prophet,  Micah  7:18: 

''Who  is  a  God  like  unto  Thee,  that  pardon- 
eth  iniquity,  and  passeth  over  the  transgression 
of  the  remnant  of  His  heritage?  He  retaineth 
not  His  anger  forever,  because  He  delighteth 
in  lovingkindness?' 

We  turn  now  to  one  of  the  last  to  be  written  books 
in  the  Old  Testament,  Neh.  9:  16-18,  26,  27,  30,  31 : 

'"But  they  and  our  fathers  dealt  proudly, 
and  hardened  their  neck,  and  hearkened  not  to 
Thy  commandments,  and  refused  to  obey, 
neither  were  mindful  of  Thy  wonders  that 
Thou  didst  among  them,  but  hardened  their 
neck,  and  in  their  rebellion  appointed  a  captain 
to  return  to  their  bondage.  But  Thou  art  a 
God  ready  to  pardon,  gracious  and  merciful, 
slow  to  anger,  and  abundant  in  lovingkindness, 
and  forsookest  them  not.  ...  (26,  27.) 

Nevertheless  they  were  disobedient,  and  rebelled 
against  Thee,  and  cast  Thy  law  behind  their 
back,  and  slew  Thy  prophets  that  testified 
against  them  to  turn  them  again  unto  Thee, 
and  they  wrought  great  provocations.  There¬ 
fore  Thou  deliveredst  them  into  the  hand  of 
their  adversaries,  to  distress  them :  and  in  the 
time  of  their  trouble,  when  they  cried  unto 
Thee,  Thou  heardest  from  heaven ;  and  accord¬ 
ing  to  Thy  manifold  mercies  Thou  gavest  them 
saviours  who  sailed  them  out  of  the  hand  of 
their  adversaries,  ...  (30,  31.)  Yet  many 

years  didst  Thou  bear  with  them,  and  testifiedst 
against  them  by  Thy  Spirit  through  Thy 


GOD  IS  ABUNDANT  IN  MERCY  213 

prophets:  yet  would  they  not  give  ear:  there¬ 
fore  gavest  Thou  them  into  the  hand  of  the 
peoples  of  the  lands.  Nevertheless  in  Thy 
manifold  mercies  Thou  didst  not  make  a  full 
end  of  them,  nor  forsake  them;  for  Thou  art  a 
gracious  and  merciful  God.” 

Now  turn  to  one  of  Paul’s  Epistles,  Phil.  2:27: 

^‘For  indeed  he  was  sick  nigh  unto  death: 
but  God  had  mercy  on  him;  and  not  on  him 
only,  but  on  me  also,  that  I  might  not  have  sor¬ 
row  upon  sorrow.” 

Turn  back  now  to  the  Old  Testament,  Ex.  15:  13: 

“Thou  in  Thy  lovingkindness  hast  led  the 
people  that  Thou  hast  redeemed: 

Thou  hast  guided  them  in  Thy  strength  to 
Thy  holy  habitation.” 

And  our  last  text  is  again  from  the  Book  of  Psalms, 
Ps.  59:  16: 

“But  I  will  sing  of  Thy  strength; 

Yea,  /  will  sing  aloud  of  Thy  lovingkindness 
in  the  morning: 

For  Thou  hast  been  my  High  Tower, 

And  a  Refuge  in  the  day  of  my  distress.” 

We  will  group  together  the  teachings  found  in  these 
verses  and  others  I  shall  be  forced  to  introduce  later, 
if  we  are  to  treat  the  subject  with  anything  like  ade¬ 
quate  fullness,  under  three  general  heads : 

1st.  The  Fact  that  God  is  Full  of  Lovingkindness. 

2nd.  Toward  Whom  the  Lovingkindness  of  God 

is  Manifested. 

3rd.  How  the  Lovingkindness  of  God  is  Manifested. 

Before  taking  up  these  three  divisions  of  our  sub- 


214 


THE  GOD  OF  THE  BIBLE 


ject,  let  me  ask  your  very  close  attention  to  the  fact 
that  the  same  Hebrew  word  in  the  Old  Testament  is 
translated,  sometimes,  “Mercy,”  and  sometimes,  “Lov¬ 
ingkindness.”  These  two  words,  therefore,  in  the 
Old  Testament  usage  mean  precisely  the  same  thing. 
This  Hebrew  word  should  have  been  translated  uni¬ 
formly  either  the  one  way  or  the  other.  The  word, 
“Mercy,”  in  our  English  translation  of  the  Old  Testa¬ 
ment  is  in  a  few  instances  a  translation  of  another 
Hebrew  word.  This  latter  Hebrew  word  corresponds 
to  the  Greek  word  always  translated  “Compassion” 
in  the  New  Testament.  It  covers  essentially  the  same 
thought  as  the  other  word.  In  fact  in  the  quotation 
from  the  Old  Testament  which  Paul  makes  in  Rom. 
9:  15,  this  other  Hebrew  word  is  translated  by  the 
Greek  word  not  for  “Compassion,”  but  for  “Mercy.” 
The  primary  meaning  of  the  word  most  frequently 
used  is  ''Kindness,”  especially  kindness  exercised  to- 
zvard  the  suffering  or  sinning.  It  is  so  translated 
thirty-nine  times  in  the  Authorized  Version.  In  thirty- 
one  of  these  instances  it  is  used  of  the  kindness  of 
man  toward  man,  in  the  remaining  eight  instances  of 
the  kindness  of  God  toward  man.  When  this  Hebrew 
word  is  used  the  Revised  Version,  as  a  rule,  varies 
from  the  Authorized  Version  and  translates  by  “Lov¬ 
ingkindness”  and  not  by  “Mercy,”  and  this  is  on  the 
whole  a  better  rendering  of  the  Hebrew  word, 
and  we  shall  use  it  uniformly  to  translate  this 
Hebrew  word,  and  confine  the  use  of  the  word  “Mercy” 
to  the  translation  of  the  other  Hebrew  word,  the  word 
which  corresponds  to  the  Greek  word  which  is  trans¬ 
lated  “Compassion”  in  the  New  Testament. 


GOD  IS  ABDINDANT  IN  MERCY  215 


/.  God  Is  Full  of  Lovingkindness. 

In  our  first,  second,  third  and  fourth  texts  we  are 
told  that  Jehovah,  the  God  of  the  Bible  Is  Full  of 
Mercy,  That  He  Is  Abundant  in  Lovingkindness.  All 
these  passages  are  from  the  Old  Testament,  which  is 
supposed,  by  some  of  our  modern  so-called  “advanced 
scholars”  to  present  a  stern  and  severe  and  relentless 
God,  in  contrast  to  the  gentle  and  loving  Father  of 
Whom  Jesus  and  John  spoke.  In  our  fifteenth  text 
the  prophet  Micah  declares  that  there  is  no  other  God 
like  Jehovah,  the  God  of  the  Bible,  “Because  He  de- 
lighteth  in  lovingkindness,”  and  that  He  shows  it  by 
pardoning  iniquity  and  passing  over  the  transgression 
of  the  remnant  of  His  heritage  (i.  e.,  Israel). 

The  book  of  Psalms  is  one  continuous  Hebrew 
anthology  of  songs  of  praise  to  a  God  Who  is  “abun¬ 
dant  in  lovingkindness,”  and  Moses,  the  supposedly 
stern  old  law-giver,  and  also  inspired  prophets,  sages, 
historians  and  kings,  join  in  the  swelling  chorus. 

Such  is  the  God  of  the  Bible,  the  God  of  the  Old 
Testament  as  well  as  the  God  of  the  New  Testament, 
a  very  different  God  from  what  many  modern,  popu¬ 
lar  preachers  declare  the  God  of  the  Old  Testament 
to  be.  If  these  men  would  study  the  Old  Testament 
more  closely  and  thoroughly  and  talk  less  about  it  until 
they  do,  it  would  be  better  for  their  own  reputation 
for  intelligent  and  thorough  scholarship  and  candor, 
and  far  better,  for  their  befogged,  befuddled,  misled 
and  grievously  wronged  hearers.  It  is  a  case  of  the 
“blind  leading  the  blind,”  and  both  together  falling 


2i6  the  god  of  the  BIBLE 

“into  the  ditch,”  the  slimy  and  pestilential  ditch,  of 
blasphemous  dishonoring  of  God  and  His  Word. 

II ,  Toward  Whom  the  Lovingkindness  of  God  Is 
Manifested, 

We  come  now  to  the  exceedingly  important  ques¬ 
tion,  '‘Toward  Whom  Is  the  Lovingkindness  of  God 
Manifested?”  This  question  the  Bible  answers  very 
plainly  and  with  great  fullness. 

I.  First  of  all,  God's  Mercy  Is  Manifested  Toward 
Whom  He  Will.  He  is  absolutely  Sovereign  in  the 
Exercise  of  His  Mercy.  Jehovah  Himself  declared  to 
Moses,  as  recorded  in  Ex.  33 :  19 : 

“I  will  be  gracious  to  whom  I  will  be  gra¬ 
cious,  and  will  show  mercy  on  whom  I  will 
show  mercy.” 

And  the  Apostle  Paul,  after  quoting  in  Rom.  9:15 
this  that  Jehovah  said  to  Moses  declares  in  Rom.  9: 
18: 

“So  thefi  He  hath  mercy  on  whom  He  will, 
and  whom  He  will  He  hardeneth.” 

But  while  we  insist  on  this  great  truth  that  God  is 
absolutely  sovereign  in  the  exercise  of  His  mercy,  and 
that  His  mercy  is  exercised  toward  whom  He  will,  we 
should  at  the  same  time  remember  that  while  God  is 
absolutely  sovereign  in  the  exercise  of  His  mercy,  while 
no  one  can  dictate  to  Him  as  to  upon  whom  He  shall 
have  mercy,  in  point  of  fact  He  wills  to  have  mercy 
on  all  upon  whom  He  can  have  mercy.  Peter  puts  it 
in  this  way  in  II  Pet.  3:9: 

“The  Lord  is  not  slack  concerning  His  prom- 


GOD  IS  ABUNDANT  IN  MERCY  217 

ise,  as  some  count  slackness;  but  is  longsuffer- 
ing  to  you-ward,  not  wishing  that  any  should 
perish,  hut  that  all  should  come  to  repentance. 

2.  In  the  second  place,  God's  Lovingkindness  is 
Manifested  toward  those  who  fear  or  love  Him,  to¬ 
ward  His  servants  who  walk  before  Him  with  all  their 
hearts.  We  read  way  back  in  one  of  the  earliest  books 
of  the  Bible,  Deut.  7:9: 

“Know  therefore  that  Jehovah  thy  God,  He 
is  God,  the  faithful  God  Who  keepeth  covenant 
and  lovingkindness  with  them  that  love  Him 
and  keep  His  commandments  to  a  thousand  gen¬ 
erations.” 

And  in  the  second  book  in  the  Bible,  Ex.  20 :  5,  6,  we 
read : 

“Thou  shalt  not  bow  down  thyself  to  them 
nor  serve  them;  for  I  Jehovah  thy  God  am  a 
jealous  God,  visiting  the  iniquity  of  the  fathers 
upon  the  children,  upon  the  third  and  upon  the 
fourth  generation  of  them  that  hate  Me,  and 
showing  loving  kindness  unto  thousands  (i.  e., 
a  thousand  generations)  of  them  that  love  Me 
and  keep  My  commandments.” 

In  the  very  familiar  103rd  Psalm,  verses  ii,  17,  18, 
we  read : 

“For  as  the  heavens  are  high  above  the  earth, 

So  great  is  His  lovingkindness  toward  them 
that  fear  Him. 

•  •  •  •  •  %  • 

But  the  lovingkindness  of  Jehovah  is  from 
everlasting  to  everlasting  upon  them  that  fear 
Him. 


2I8 


THE  GOD  OF  THE  BIBLE 


And  His  righteousness  unto  children’s  chil¬ 
dren; 

To  such  as  keep  His  covenant, 

And  to  those  that  remember  His  precepts  to 
do  them.” 

In  II  Chron.  6:  14,  we  read: 

“And  he  said,  O  Jehovah,  the  God  of  Israel, 
there  is  no  God  like  Thee,  in  heaven,  or  on 
earth;  Who  keepest  covenant  and  lovingkind- 
ness  with  Thy  servants,  that  walk  before  Thee 
with  all  their  heart 

It  should  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  phrases,  the  “fear 
of  Jehovah,”  as  used  in  the  Old  Testament,  and  the 
“love  of  God,”  as  used  in  the  New  Testament,  are 
practically  synonymous.  This  appears  by  a  compari¬ 
son  of  Prov.  8:  13  and  Prov.  16:  6,  with  I  Jno.  5 : 3. 
In  Prov.  8 :  13,  we  read : 

''The  fear  of  Jehovah  is  to  hate  evil:’* 
and  in  Prov.  16:6,  we  read: 

“By  mercy  and  truth  iniquity  is  atoned  for; 

And  by  the  fear  of  Jehovah  men  depart  from 
evil” 

But  in  I  Jno.  5  :  3,  we  read : 

"For  this  is  the  love  of  God,  that  we  keep 
His  commandments,” 

So  we  see  that  the  two  phrases,  the  “Fear  of  Je¬ 
hovah,”  and  the  “Love  of  God”  describe  practically 
the  same  thing,  but  viewed  from  different  standpoints. 
The  two  phrases  look  at  practically  the  same  attitude 
of  mind  toward  God  from  different  points  of  view. 

3.  In  the  third  place,  The  Mercy  of  God  Is  Mani- 


GOD  IS  ABUNDANT  IN  MERCY  219 

jested  Toward  Every  One  Who  Confesses  and  For¬ 
sakes  His  Sim.  This  we  are  told  in  Prov.  28 :  13  : 

‘‘He  that  covereth  his  transgression  shall  not 
prosper; 

But  whoso  confesseth  and  forsaketh  them 
shall  obtain  mercy.” 

God  shows  mercy  toward  the  vilest  sinner  if  he  con¬ 
fesses  and  forsakes  his  sin,  but  if  he  seeks  to  hide  or 
deny  his  sins,  he  will  find  no  mercy.  If  we  seek  to 
cover  up  our  sins  from  God,  He  will  uncover  them  to 
the  whole  world,  and  severely  punish  them,  but  if  we 
uncover  them  to  God  and  forsake  them,  God  will  cover 
them  up  so  deep  that  no  one  can  ever  find  them.  He 
will  cover  them  with  the  atoning  blood  of  Jesus  Christ, 
which  will  hide  them  even  from  His  own  all-seeing 
eye  (see  Rom.  3  :  23-26). 

4.  In  the  fourth  place.  The  Lovingkindness  of  God 
is  Manifested  Toward  the  One  Who  trust eth  in  Je¬ 
hovah.  This,  we  are  told  in  Ps.  32 :  10 : 

“Many  sorrows  shall  be  to  the  wicked; 

But  he  that  trusteth  in  Jehovah,  lovingkind¬ 
ness  shall  compass  him  about.” 

If  one  will  only  put  his  whole  trust  in  Jehovah  (the 
God  of  the  Bible),  then  will  he  not  only  find  loving¬ 
kindness  from  the  God  of  the  Bible,  but  that  “Loving¬ 
kindness  (of  Jehovah)  shall  compass  him  about”  on 
every  hand,  and  the  enemy  will  not  be  able  to  get  at 
him  at  any  point. 

5.  In  the  fifth  place,  The  Lovingkindness  of  God  Is 
Manifested  Toward  All  Them  That  Call  Upon  Him. 
This  we  are  told  in  Ps.  86:5* 


220 


THE  GOD  OF  THE  BIBLE 


“For  Thou,  Lord,  art  good,  and  ready  to 
forgive. 

And  abundant  in  lomngkindness  unto  all 
them  that  call  upon  Thee/' 

We  find  the  same  thought,  though  couched  in  other 
words  (the  words  “Mercy’’  or  “Lovingkindness”  not 
being  used  but  the  thought  still  there)  in  the  New 
Testament,  in  Rom.  10:12,  13  : 

“For  there  is  no  distinction  between  Jew  and 
Greek:  for  the  same  Lord  is  Lord  of  all,  and 
is  rich  unto  all  that  call  upon  Him:  for. 
Whosoever  shall  call  upon  the  name  of  the 
Lord  shall  be  saved.” 

Ill.  How  Is  the  Lovingkindness  of  God  Manifested? 

We  come  now  to  the  last  question,  and  it  is  a  very 
practical  question.  How  Is  the  Lovingkindness  of  God 
Manifested?  The  teaching  of  the  Bible  on  this  point 
is  also  very  full  and  very  rich. 

I.  In  the  first  place.  The  Lovingkindness  of  God  Is 
Manifested  in  His  Pardoning  Sin  When  It  Is  Con¬ 
fessed  and  Forsaken.  This,  we  are  told  over  and  over 
again  in  the  Bible.  For  example  we  are  told  in  Ex. 
34:6, 7: 

“And  Jehovah  passed  by  before  him,  and 
proclaimed,  Jehovah,  Jehovah,  a  God  merciful 
and  gracious,  slow  to  anger,  and  abundant  in 
lovingkindness  and  truth;  keeping  lovingkind¬ 
ness  for  thousands,  forgiving  iniquity  and 
transgression  and  sin;  and  that  will  by  no  means 
clear  the  guilty,  visiting  the  iniquity  of  the 


GOD  IS  ABUNDANT  IN  MERCY  221 


fathers  upon  the  children,  and  upon  the  chil¬ 
dren’s  children,  upon  the  third  and  upon  the 
fourth  generation.” 

One  of  the  most  familiar  and  at  the  same  time  clear¬ 
est  and  most  forceful  expressions  of  this  precious 
truth  is  found  in  Isa.  55:7: 

*‘Let  the  wicked  forsake  his  way,  and  the  un¬ 
righteous  his  thoughts ;  and  let  him  return  unto 
Jehovah,  and  He  will  have  mercy  upon  him; 
and  to  our  God,  for  He  will  abundantly  par» 
donr 

To  backsliding  Israel  Jehovah  says  in  Jer.  3:12, 

13: 

“Go,  and  proclaim  these  words  toward  the 
north  and  say,  Return,  thou  backsliding  Israel, 
saith  Jehovah;  I  will  not  look  in  anger  upon 
you;  for  I  am  merciful,  saith  Jehovah,  I  will 
not  keep  anger  forever.  Only  acknowledge 
thine  iniquity,  that  thou  hast  transgressed 
against  Jehovah  thy  GodJ* 

In  Jonah  4:2,  we  read: 

“And  he  prayed  unto  Jehovah  and  said  .  .  . 
I  knew  that  Thou  art  a  gracious  God,  and 
merciful,  slow  to  anger,  and  abundant  in  lov¬ 
ingkindness  and  repentest  Thee  of  the  eviH 
Micah  proclaims  the  truth  that  the  lovingkindness 
of  Jehovah  manifests  itself  in  pardoning  iniquity,  in 
one  of  the  most  beautiful  passages  in  his  prophecy,  a 
prophecy  which  abounds  in  marvelously  beautiful  pas¬ 
sages,  Micah  7:18: 

“Who  is  a  God  like  unto  Thee,  that  pardon- 
eth  iniquity,  and  passeth  over  the  transgression 


222 


THE  GOD  OF  THE  BIBLE 


of  the  remnant  of  His  heritage?  He  retaineth 
not  His  anger  forever,  because  He  delighteth  in 
lovingkindness. 

Again,  David,  who  had  fallen  into  his  gross  and  ap¬ 
palling  sins  of  adultery  and  murder,  still  counted  on 
the  forgiveness  of  Jehovah,  because  he  had  learned 
Jehovah’s  lovingkindness  and  mercy;  so  we  read  in 
his  Penitential  Psalm  this  prayer  as  he  makes  full 
confession  of  his  sin,  Ps.  51:1: 

‘‘Have  mercy  upon  me,  O  God,  according  to 
thy  lovingkindness ; 

According  to  the  multitude  of  thy  tender 
mercies  blot  out  my  transgressions.^^ 

And  Moses,  away  back  thirty-four  hundred  years 
ago,  counting  on  the  lovingkindness  of  Jehovah, 
pleaded  with  Him  to  forgive  the  oft-repeated  sin  and 
unfaithfulness  of  His  people,  as  we  read  in  Num.  14: 
18-20: 

“Jehovah  is  slow  to  anger,  and  abundant  in 
loving  kindness,  forgiving  iniquity  and  trans^ 
gression;  and  that  will  by  no  means  clear  the 
guilty,  visiting  the  iniquity  of  the  fathers  upon 
the  children,  upon  the  third  and  upon  the  fourth 
generation.  Pardon,  I  pray  Thee,  the  iniquity 
of  this  people  according  unto  the  greatness  of 
Thy  lovingkindness,  and  according  as  Thou 
hast  forgiven  this  people,  from  Egypt  even  until 
now.  And  Jehovah  said,  I  have  pardoned  ac¬ 
cording  to  thy  word.” 

Mercy  has  been  defined  by  a  great  thinker  and  theo¬ 
logian,  Charles  G.  Finney,  in  these  words,  “Mercy  is 
exercised  only  where  there  is  guilt.”  Now  this  is  true 


'  GOD  IS  ABUNDANT  IN  MERCY  223 

in  law,  and  in  the  usage  of  the  word  “mercy”  in  law, 
but  it  is  not  true  of  the  Bible  usage  of  the  word, 
“Mercy”  or  “lovingkindness,”  as  is  clear  from  many 
of  the  passages  to  which  I  have  already  referred. 
Nevertheless,  it  is  true  that  “Mercy”  or  “Lovingkind¬ 
ness”  is  manifested  in  the  forgiveness  of  sins,  and  this 
manifestation  of  mercy  lies  at  the  basis  of  many  other 
manifestations  of  God’s  “Mercy”  or  “Lovingkindness” 
in  His  dealings  with  men;  for  the  human  race  is  a 
guilty  race  and  when  men  recognize  their  guilt  and 
confess  their  sins,  then  are  they  most  likely  to  see  God’s 
Lovingkindness  manifested  in  a  multitude  of  gracious 
ways. 

2.  In  the  second  place.  The  Lovingkindness  of  God 
Is  Manifested  in  His  Bearing  Long  with  Sinners,  Even 
When  They  Harden  Their  Necks  and  Persist  in  Sin. 
We  have  a  striking  illustration  of  this  in  God’s  deal¬ 
ings  with  constantly  backsliding  and  rebellious  Israel. 
Read  for  example,  Neh.  9:  16-18,  26,  27,  30,  31 : 

“But  they  and  our  fathers  dealt  proudly,  and 
hardened  their  necks,  and  hearkened  not  to  Thy 
commandments,  and  refused  to  obey,  neither 
were  mindful  of  Thy  wonders  that  Thou  didst 
among  them,  but  hardened  their  necks,  and  in 
their  rebellion  appointed  a  captain  to  return  to 
their  bondage.  But  Thou  art  a  God  ready  to 
pardon,  gracious  and  merciful,  slow  to  anger, 
and  abundant  in  lovingkindness,  and  forsookest 
them  not.  Yea,  when  they  had  made  them  a 
molten  calf,  and  said.  This  is  thy  God  that 
brought  thee  up  out  of  Egypt,  and  had  wrought 
great  provocations.  .  .  .  (26.)  Nevertheless 


224 


THE  GOD  OF  THE  BIBLE 


they  were  disobedient,  and  rebelled  against 
Thee,  and  cast  thy  law  behind  their  back,  and 
slew  Thy  prophets  that  testified  against  them  to 
turn  them  again  unto  Thee,  and  they  wrought 
great  provocations.  Therefore  Thou  deliveredst 
them  into  the  hand  of  their  adversaries,  to  dis¬ 
tress  them:  and  in  the  time  of  their  trouble, 
when  they  cried  unto  Thee,  Thou  heardest 
from  heaven;  and  according  to  Thy  manifold 
mercies  Thou  gavest  them  saviours  who  saved 
them  out  of  the  hand  of  their  adversaries.  .  .  . 
(30.)  Yet  many  years  didst  Thou  bear  with 
them,  and  testifiedst  against  them  by  Thy  Spirit 
through  Thy  prophets:  yet  would  they  not  give 
ear :  therefore  gavest  Thou  them  into  the  hand 
of  the  peoples  of  the  lands.  N evertheless  In 
Thy  manifold  mercies  Thou  didst  not  make  a 
full  end  of  them,  nor  forsake  them;  for  Thou 
art  a  gracious  and  merciful  God/^ 

Over  and  over  again  Israel  departed  from  God  and 
He  chastened  them  sorely,  but  He  did  not  forsake 
them.  Israel  as  a  nation  is  still  departing  from  Je¬ 
hovah,  the  God  of  the  Bible,  and  how  frightfully  they 
have  been  chastened  and  scourged  during  the  awful 
centuries  since  they  crucified  their  “Lord  and  Christ” 
(Acts  2:36);  but  God  has  never  forsaken  them. 
Their  preservation  and  prosperity  in  the  midst  of  the 
continued  persecution  and  appalling  calamities  that 
have  befallen  them  is  the  miracle  of  history. 

And  they  are  untrue  to  Jehovah  and  His  Christ  still, 
and  God  is  chastening  them  and  scourging  them  to  this 


GOD  IS  ABUNDANT  IN  MERCY  225 

day,  and  what  appalling  things  they  are  suffering  to¬ 
day,  and  the  worst  is  yet  to  come,  ‘‘the  Day  of  Jacob’s 
Trouble”;  but  Jehovah  has  not  forsaken  them,  and 
will  bring  them  out  at  last  as  the  transcendently  glori¬ 
ous  nation  of  all  nations.  His  lovingkindness  makes 
that  absolutely  sure,  and  His  Word  makes  it  absolutely 
certain. 

3.  In  the  third  place.  The  Lovingkindness  of  God 
Is  Manifested  in  His  Delivering  from  Sickness,  Sor¬ 
row  and  Oppression.  This  blessed  truth  we  find  in 
both  the  Old  Testament  and  the  New  Testament,  for 
example,  we  read  in  Ps.  6:  1-4: 

“O  Jehovah,  rebuke  me  not  in  Thine  anger. 

Neither  chasten  me  in  Thy  hot  displeasure. 

Have  mercy  upon  me,  O  Jehovah,  for  I  am 
withered  away: 

O  Jehovah,  heal  me;  for  my  hones  are  trou¬ 
bled. 

My  soul  also  is  sore  troubled : 

And  Thou,  O  Jehovah,  how  long? 

Return,  O  Jehovah,  deliver  my  soul : 

Save  me  for  Thy  lovingkindness’  sake.” 

And  we  read  in  Phil.  2:27: 

‘^ut  God  had  mercy  on  him ;  and  not  on  him 
only,  but  on  me  also,  that  I  might  not  have 
sorrow  upon  sorrow.” 

And  we  read  in  Ex.  15:  13-17: 

‘'Thou  in  Thy  loving  kindness  hast  led  the 
people  that  Thou  hast  redeemed: 

Thou  hast  guided  them  in  Thy  strength  to 
Thy  holy  habitation. 


226 


THE  GOD  OF  THE  BIBLE 


The  peoples  have  heard,  they  tremble: 

Pangs  have  taken  hold  on  the  inhabitants  of 
Philistia. 

Then  were  the  chiefs  of  Edom  dismayed; 

The  mighty  men  of  Moab,  trembling  taketh 
hold  upon  them : 

All  the  inhabitants  of  Canaan  are  melted 
away. 

Terror  and  dread  falleth  upon  them; 

By  the  greatness  of  Thine  arm  they  are  as 
still  as  a  stone; 

Till  Thy  people  pass  over,  O  Jehovah, 

Till  the  people  pass  over  that  Thou  hast  pur¬ 
chased. 

Thou  wilt  bring  them  in,  and  plant  them  in 
the  mountain  of  Thine  inheritance. 

The  place,  O  Jehovah,  which  Thou  hast  made 
for  Thee  to  dwell  in. 

The  sanctuary,  O  Lord,  which  Thy  hands 
have  established. 

Jehovah  shall  reign  for  ever  and  ever.^’ 

4.  In  the  fourth  place.  The  Lovingkindness  of  God 
Is  Manifested  in  His  Maintaining  the  Security  of 
Those  Who  Trust  in  Him.  This  David  tells  us  in  Ps. 
21:7: 

‘Tor  the  king  trusteth  in  Jehovah; 

And  through  the  lovingkindness  of  the  Most 
High  he  shall  not  he  moved.” 

Not  only  the  king,  even  the  King  of  Kings,  Jesus, 
will  be  so  established  that  all  the  powers  of  Satan  can¬ 
not  move  Him  because  He  “trusteth  in  Jehovah”;  but 
the  least  of  God’s  own  who  trust  in  Him  cannot  be 


GOD  IS  ABUNDANT  IN  MERCY  227 

moved,  because  “the  lovingkindness  of  the  Most  High” 
is  on  their  side. 

5.  In  the  fifth  place,  The  Lovingkindness  of  God 
Is  Manifested  in  His  Acting  as  a  Defense  and  Refuge 
in  the  Day  of  Trouble.  David,  the  sweet  singer  of 
Israel,  sings  in  Ps.  59:  16: 

“But  I  will  sing  of  Thy  strength; 

Yea,  I  will  sing  aloud  of  Thy  lovingkindness 
in  the  morning: 

For  Thou  hast  been  my  High  Tower, 

And  a  Refuge  in  the  day  of  my  distress/^ 

If  we,  in  spite  of  all  our  infirmities  and  failures,  put 
our  trust  in  Jehovah  and  live  for  him  as  David  did,  in 
spite  of  all  his  infirmities  and  failures  and  appalling 
lapses,  then  can  we  too  be  sure  that  the  Lovingkind¬ 
ness  of  Jehovah,  the  God  of  the  Bible,  will  manifest  it¬ 
self  in  His  being  our  all-sufficient  Defense  and  our  per¬ 
fectly  secure  Refuge  and  Hiding  Place  in  every  day 
of  trouble  and  distress.  And  here  we  reluctantly  close 
our  study  of  the  Lovingkindness  of  Jehovah,  the  God 
of  the  Bible. 

Who  would  give  up  such  a  God  for  the  paltry  god- 
lettes  of  “Christian  Science,”  or  Theosophy,  or  “New 
Thought,”  or  Spiritualism,  or  Unitarianism,  or  “The 
New  Theology,”  or  “Modern  Philosophy”  or  “Mod¬ 
ernism”  in  general  ? 


CHAPTER  XII 


GOD  IS  FAITHFUL 

The  particular  subject  of  this  chapter  is  The  God  of 
the  Bible:  God  is  Faithful.  I  think  comparatively  few 
Christians  have  dwelt  much  on  this  particular  attribute 
of  God,  and  therefore  very  few  of  us  realize  the  wealth 
of  meaning  there  is  in  the  teaching  of  the  Bible  on  this 
exceedingly  precious  and  joy-inspiring  subject.  God 
has  given  me  just  twelve  texts  as  the  basis  of 
our  study  and  meditation;  but  we  shall  in  the  course 
of  our  study  consider  quite  a  number  of  other  pas¬ 
sages  of  Scripture  in  which  God  reveals  the  truth  about 
Himself  in  regard  to  the  many  ways  in  which  He 
manifests  His  faithfulness  in  dealing  with  those  who 
know  Him  and  put  their  trust  in  Him.  The  considera¬ 
tion  of  these  passages  as  the  Holy  Spirit  Himself  in¬ 
terprets  them  to  us,  will  help  us  to  still  further  appre¬ 
ciate  the  meaning  and  force  of  that  wonderful  saying 
of  our  Lord  Jesus,  found  in  John  17:3: 

“And  this  is  the  life  eternal,  that  they  should 
know  Thee,  the  Only  true  God,  and  Him 
Whom  Thou  didst  send,  even  Jesus  Christ.’’ 

Our  first  text  is  Deut.  7:9: 

“Know  therefore  that  Jehovah  thy  God,  He 
is  God,  the  faithful  God,  Who  keepeth  covenant 

and  lovingkindness  with  them  that  love  Him 

228 


GOD  IS  FAITHFUL 


229 

and  keep  His  commandments  to  a  thousand 
generations.” 

Now  turn  to  another  passage  in  this  same  wonder¬ 
ful  book  of  Deuteronomy,  which  the  Devil  so  hates 
(I  suppose  in  part  because  it  was  the  only  book  from 
which  our  Lord  Jesus  quoted  when  He  had  His  con¬ 
flict  with  him  in  the  wilderness,  and  so  completely 
routed  him),  and  which  the  “higher  critics”  of  the  pre¬ 
vailing  school  also  so  persistently  attempt  to  disparage 
and  discredit,  but  which  all  regenerate  persons  who  in¬ 
telligently  study  it  so  highly  esteem,  Deut.  32:4: 

“The  Rock,  His  work  is  perfect; 

For  all  His  ways  are  justice: 

A  God  of  faithfulness  and  without  iniquity, 

Just  and  right  is  He.” 

The  Authorized  Version  translates  this  passage  dif¬ 
ferently.  It  reads : 

“He  is  the  Rock,  His  work  is  perfect :  for  all 
His  ways  are  judgment:  a  God  of  truth  and 
without  iniquity,  just  and  right  is  He.” 

But  the  Hebrew  word  which  is  translated  “truth” 
in  the  Authorized  Version  is  precisely  the  same  word 
that  is  elsewhere  translated  “faithfulness,”  and  of 
course  should  be  so  translated  here  (just  as  it  is  in  the 
R.  V.). 

Now  turn  to  the  prophet  Isaiah,  Isa.  49 : 7 : 

“Thus  saith  Jehovah,  the  Redeemer  of  Israel, 
and  His  Holy  One,  to  Him  Whom  man  de- 
spiseth,  to  Him  Whom  the  nation  abhorreth.  to 
a  servant  of  rulers:  Kings  shall  see  and  arise; 
princes,  and  they  shall  worship;  because  of  Je~ 


230 


THE  GOD  OF  THE  BIBLE 


hovah  that  is  faithful^  even  the  Holy  One  of 
Israel,  Who  hath  chosen  thee.’^ 

We  now  go  to  the  New  Testament,  I  Cor.  1:9: 

''God  is  faithful,  through  Whom  ye  were 
called  into  the  fellowship  of  His  Son  Jesus 
Christ  our  Lord.” 

In  this  Epistle  to  the  Corinthians  Paul  especially 
dwells  on  the  Faithfulness  of  God,  perhaps  to  encour¬ 
age  them  as  some  of  their  own  number  had  proven  so 
unfaithful.  So  turn  to  another  passage  from  this  book, 
I  Cor.  10 :  13 : 

“There  hath  no  temptation  taken  you  but 
such  as  man  can  bear :  but  God  is  faithful,  Who 
will  not  suffer  you  to  be  tempted  above  that  ye 
are  able;  but  will  with  the  temptation  make 
also  the  way  of  escape,  that  ye  may  be  able  to 
endure  it.” 

We  now  turn  to  another  Epistle  of  Paul,  the  first 
one  written,  i  Thess.  5:23,  24: 

“And  the  God  of  peace  Himself  sanctify  you 
wholly ;  and  may  your  spirit  and  soul  and  body 
be  preserved  entire,  without  blame  at  the  com¬ 
ing  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  Faithful  is  He 
that  calleth  you.  Who  will  also  do  it.” 

Our  next  text  is  from  Paul’s  second  epistle  to  the 
Thessalonians,  II  Thess.  3:3: 

“But  the  Lord  is  faithful.  Who  shall  estab¬ 
lish  you,  and  guard  you  from  the  evil  one.” 

We  turn  from  Paul  to  John,  I  Jno.  1:9: 

“If  we  confess  our  sins.  He  is  faithful  and 
righteous  to  forgive  us  our  sins,  and  to  cleanse 
us  from  all  unrighteousness.” 


GOD  IS  FAITHFUL 


231 

Now  we  go  back  to  the  prophets,  to  Jeremiah,  Lam. 
3:22,23: 

‘Tt  is  of  Jehovah’s  lovingkindnesses  that  we 
are  not  consumed,  because  His  compassions  fail 
not. 

They  are  new  every  morning;  great  is  Thy 
faithfulness/' 

In  our  three  remaining  texts  we  resort  to  the  Book 
of  Psalms,  the  book  that  is  so  completely  given  up  to 
extolling  the  glorious  attributes  of  Jehovah,  the  God 
of  the  Bible.  Read  first,  Ps.  33:4: 

‘‘For  the  word  of  Jehovah  is  right; 

And  all  His  work  is  done  in  faithfulness." 

Here  again  the  Authorized  Version  reads  “truth’' 
instead  of  “faithfulness,”  but  here  again  the  Hebrew 
word  rendered  “truth”  is  the  Hebrew  word  elsewhere 
rendered  “faithfulness,”  and  is  from  the  root  which 
means  “to  be  faithful.” 

Now  turn  to  Ps.  36:5: 

“Thy  lovingkindness,  O  Jehovah,  is  in  the 
heavens; 

Thy  faithfulness  reache th  unto  the  skies." 

The  Authorized  Version  here  reads : 

“Thy  mercy,  O  Lord,  is  in  the  heavens;  and 
Thy  faithfulness  reacheth  unto  the  clouds." 

But  the  Hebrew  word  translated  “clouds”  in  this 
passage  is  not  the  one  ordinarily  used  for  clouds,  and 
is  the  word  always  used  for  “sky”  or  “skies”  in  every 
instance  where  these  words  are  found  in  the  Old  Tes¬ 
tament.  Now  for  our  last  text  turn  to  the  longest 
chapter  in  the  Bible,  the  Psalm  which  is  given  up  to 


232 


THE  GOD  OF  THE  BIBLE 


a  description  and  exaltation  of  the  glories  of  God  and 
of  His  Word,  Ps.  119:89,  90: 

‘ 'Forever,  O  Jehovah, 

Thy  word  is  settled  in  heaven. 

Thy  faithfulness  is  unto  all  generations: 
Thou  hast  established  the  earth,  and  it  abid- 
eth.’’ 


/.  God  Is  Faithful. 

In  seven  of  these  twelve  texts  the  definite  statement 
is  made  that  God  is  Faithful,  and  each  of  the  remain¬ 
ing  five  texts  emphasizes  the  fact  of  His  infinite  and 
eternal  faithfulness.  Law-givers,  prophets,  apostles, 
kings  and  poets,  all  inspired  by  the  same  Spirit  of  God, 
the  Spirit  of  Truth,  join  in  one  mighty,  exultant  an¬ 
them  of  praise  to  the  Faithfulness  of  God,  that  en- 
dureth  “unto  all  generations.’’ 

But  What  Do  the  Words  ^WaithfuV^  and  ^Waithful- 
ness”  Mean? 

By  carefully  searching  the  Scriptures  we  get  a  clear 
and  unmistakable  and  incontrovertible  answer  to  this 
important  question. 

I.  In  the  first  place,  looking  at  the  derivation  of 
the  Hebrew  words  so  translated,  we  find  that  they  were 
derived  from  a  Hebrew  verb,  Aman  (from  which  our 
word  Amen — meaning  verily,  truly,  certainly — is  de¬ 
rived).  This  verb  means  to  prop,  or  stay,  or  support. 
In  its  reflexive  and  intransitive  use,  the  word  means 
“to  stay  oneself,”  or  “to  be  supported.”  Therefore 
the  adjective  “faithful”  means,  when  applied  to  a  per- 


GOD  IS  FAITHFUL 


233 

son,  such  a  person  as  one  may  safely  lean  upon  with 
all  his  weight,  or  stay  himself  upon. 

The  Greek  word  translated  “faithful”  in  the  New 
Testament  means  “worthy  of  trust,”  one  that  can  be 
relied  upon.  But  this  same  Greek  word  is  used  in  the 
Septuagint  (i.  e.,  the  Greek  translation  of  the  Hebrew 
Bible  in  common  use  when  the  New  Testament  was 
written),  to  translate  the  Hebrew  word  already  re¬ 
ferred  to,  and  of  course  gets  its  New  Testament  mean¬ 
ing  from  that  fact. 

2.  In  the  second  place,  looking  at  the  usage  of  the 
word  “faithful”  in  both  the  Old  Testament  and  the 
New  Testament,  we  find  that  its  Biblical  usage  con¬ 
forms  exactly  to  its  derivation,  for  example,  in  Ps. 
1 19 :  86  we  read : 

“All  Thy  commandments  are  faithful:” 

That  is  to  say  that  the  commandments  of  God  can 
be  absolutely  depended  upon. 

In  Proverbs  14:  5,  we  read. 

“A  faithful  witness  will  not  lie; 

But  a  false  witness  uttereth  lies.” 

That  is  to  say  that  a  faithful  witness  is  one  who 
always  tells  the  truth,  and  who  therefore  can,  under 
all  circumstances,  be  depended  upon.  Turning  to  the 
New  Testament,  to  Jesus  Christ’s  own  use  of  the 
word,  in  Matt.  24:45,  46,  we  read: 

“Who  then  is  the  faithful  and  wise  servant, 
whom  his  lord  hath  set  over  his  household,  to 
give  them  their  food  in  due  season?  Blessed 
is  that  servant,  whom  his  lord  when  he  cometh 
shall  find  so  doing” 


234 


THE  GOD  OF  THE  BIBLE 


Here  we  see  that  a  faithful  servant  is  one  who  can 
be  depended  upon  to  do  what  he  is  told  to  do.  In 
Matt.  25:21,  23,  we  read: 

‘‘His  lord  said  unto  him,  Well  done,  good 
and  faithful  servant :  thou  hast  been  faithful 
over  a  few  things,  I  will  set  thee  over  many 
things;  enter  thou  into  the  joy  of  thy  lord.  .  .  . 

“His  lord  said  unto  him,  Well  done,  good 
and  faithful  servant :  thou  hast  been  faithful 
over  a  few  things,  I  will  set  thee  over  many 
things;  enter  thou  into  the  joy  of  thy  lord.” 

Here  the  word  “Faithful”  is  used  four  times,  and 
in  every  instance  of  a  servant  to  describe  him  as  a 
servant  who  can  be  absolutely  depended  upon,  not  only 
to  do  what  he  is  told  to  do,  but  what  ought  to  be  done, 
whether  he  is  told  or  not. 

Turning  to  Paul  we  read  in  I  Tim.  i :  15  : 

''Faithful  is  the  saying,  and  worthy  of  all 
acceptation^  that  Christ  Jesus  came  into  the 
world  to  save  sinners.” 

Here  “faithful”  is  used  to  describe  the  character 
of  this  wonderful  and  apparently  incredible  statement 
that  is  made,  and  the  thought  is,  that  as  wonderful  as 
the  statement  is,  it  is  to  be  absolutely  depended  upon, 
that  it  is  “worthy  of  all  (unhesitating  and  whole¬ 
hearted)  acceptance.” 

Now  looking  to  the  last  book  in  the  Bible,  and  next 
to  the  last  chapter,  in  Rev.  21:5,  we  read: 

“And  He  that  sitteth  on  the  throne  said.  Be¬ 
hold,  I  make  all  things  new.  And  He  saith. 
Write :  for  these  words  are  faithful  and  true,” 


GOD  IS  FAITHFUL 


235 

That  is  to  say,  the  words  that  God  has  spoken  are 
to  he  absolutely  depended  upon. 

It  is  clear  then,  the  word  “Faithful”  as  applied  to 
a  person  means  a  person  upon  whom  we  can  stay 
ourselves,  a  person  who  can  be  absolutely  depended 
upon  in  any  and  every  emergency  that  can  arise. 
Therefore  to  say  “God  is  faithful”  means,  God  is  such 
a  Person  that  we  can  absolutely  rely  upon  Him  in  every 
emergency  of  life,  such  a  Person  that  we  can  stay  our¬ 
selves  upon  Him  under  all  circumstances,  in  time  and 
in  eternity.  As  Isaiah  puts  it  in  Isa.  26 :  3,  4 : 

“Thou  wilt  keep  him  in  perfect  peace  whose 
mind  is  stayed  on  Thee;  because  he  trusteth 
in  Thee.  Trust  ye  in  Jehovah  forever;  for  in 
Jehovah,  even  Jehovah,  is  an  everlasting  rock.” 

The  Bible  has  much  that  is  suggestive  and  instruc¬ 
tive  and  heart-thrilling  to  say  about  the  measureless 
extent  and  eternal  duration  of  the  Faithfulness  of 
God.  We  read  for  example,  in  Lam.  3  :  22,  23 : 

“It  is  of  Jehovah^s  lovingkindnesses  that  we 
are  not  consumed,  because  His  compassions  fail 
not. 

They  are  new  every  morning;  great  is  Thy 
faithfulness.^' 

In  Ps.  36 :  5,  we  read : 

“Thy  lovingkindness,  O  Jehovah,  is  in  the 
heavens ; 

Thy  faithfulness  reacheth  unto  the  skies." 

In  Ps.  33  :  4,  we  read : 

“For  the  word  of  Jehovah  is  right; 

And  all  His  •^^ork  is  done  in  faithfulness." 


236  THE  GOD  OF  THE  BIBLE 

And  in  Ps.  119:89,  90,  we  read: 

''Forever,  O  Jehovah, 

Thy  word  is  settled  in  heaven. 

Thy  faithfulness  is  unto  all  generations: 

Thou  hast  established  the  earth,  and  it  abid- 
eth.^’ 

IL  How  the  Faithfulness  of  God  Is  Manifested. 

Now  let  us  for  our  encouragement,  for  our  deliver¬ 
ance  from  all  fear  and  anxiety  and  worry,  and  for 
our  exceeding  great  joy,  look  at  the  many  ways  in 
which  the  Faithfulness  of  God  is  manifested,  as  they 
are  set  forth  in  God’s  own  word  about  Himself,  the 
Bible. 

I.  In  the  first  place,  God's  Faithfulness  is  Mani¬ 
fested  in  His  keeping  His  promise  and  covenant  to  the 
very  letter,  in  His  fulfilling  every  word  that  goes  out 
of  His  mouth,  regardless  of  what  man  does.  This  we 
find  in  Heb.  10 :  23,  36,  37 : 

“Let  us  hold  fast  the  confession  of  our  hope 
that  it  waver  not ;  for  He  is  faithful  that  prom¬ 
ised.  ... 

For  ye  have  need  of  patience,  that,  having 
done  the  will  of  God,  ye  may  receive  the  prom¬ 
ise. 

For  yet  a  very  little  while. 

He  that  cometh  shall  come,  and  shall  not 
tarry.” 

Here  we  are  told  that  we  need  have  no  fear  what¬ 
ever  about  the  future,  however  uncertain  and  threat¬ 
ening  it  may  seem,  because  God’s  promises  cover  it 


GOD  IS  FAITHFUL 


237 

all,  and  “He  is  faithful  that  promised,’’  and  therefore 
we  may  rest  absolutely  confident  that  His  promises  will 
be  fulfilled  to  the  very  letter. 

In  a  similar  way  Moses  comforted  Israel  in  antici¬ 
pation  of  all  that  their  mighty  enemies  would  do  to 
overthrow  and  destroy  them,  by  saying  in  Deut.  7:9: 

“Know  therefore  that  Jehovah  thy  God,  He 
is  God,  the  faithful  God,  Who  keepeth  covenant 
and  lovingkindness  with  them  that  love  Him 
and  keep  His  commandments  to  a  thousand  gen¬ 
erations.” 

In  a  similar  way  Solomon,  in  his  prayer  at  the  dedi¬ 
cation  of  the  temple  at  Jerusalem,  in  speaking  to  Je¬ 
hovah,  God  of  Israel,  exclaims,  as  recorded  in  I  Kings 
8:23,  24: 

“O  Jehovah,  the  God  of  Israel,  there  is  no 
God  like  Thee,  in  heaven  above,  or  on  earth 
beneath;  Who  keepest  covenant  and  lovingkind¬ 
ness  with  Thy  servants,  that  walk  before  Thee 
with  all  their  heart;  Who  hast  kept  with  Thy 
servant  David  my  father  that  zvhich  Thou  didst 
promise  him:  yea.  Thou  spakest  with  Thy 
mouth,  and  hast  fulfilled  it  with  Thy  hand,  as 
it  is  this  day.” 

And  again  in  closing  that  prayer,  after  referring  to 
the  calamities  that  would  surely  come  upon  Israel  be¬ 
cause  of  forsaking  Jehovah,  and  of  the  way  of  deliv¬ 
erance  by  turning  to  and  appealing  to  Jehovah,  the 
only  true  God,  Solomon  exclaims  in  verse  56: 

“Blessed  be  Jehovah,  that  hath  given  rest 
unto  His  people  Israel,  according  to  all  that  He 
promised:  there  hath  not  failed  one  word  of 


238 


THE  GOD  OF  THE  BIBLE 


all  His  good  promise,  which  He  promised  by 
Moses  His  servant.” 

Jehovah  God  Himself,  after  telling  them  of  the 
awful  calamities  that  would  surely  come  upon  them  if 
they  forsook  Him,  in  Ps.  89 :  30-32  : 

(‘Tf  his  children  forsake  My  law 
And  walk  not  in  My  ordinances ; 

If  they  break  My  statutes. 

And  keep  not  My  commandments ; 

Then  will  I  visit  their  transgression  with  the 
rod. 

And  their  iniquity  with  stripes.”) 
declares  in  verses  33,  34: 

^^But  My  lovingkindness  will  I  not  utterly 
take  from  him. 

Nor  suffer  My  faithfulness  to  fail. 

My  covenant  will  I  not  break, 

Nor  alter  the  thing  that  has  gone  out  of  my 
lips/’ 

2.  In  the  second  place,  God’s  Faithfulness  is  Mani¬ 
fested  in  the  defense  and  deliverance  of  His  servants 
in  times  of  fiercest  trial,  testing  and  conflict.  This  we 
are  told  by  Peter  in  I  Pet.  4:19: 

“Wherefore  let  them  also  that  suffer  accord¬ 
ing  to  the  will  of  God  commit  their  souls  in 
well-doing  unto  a  faithfid  Creator.” 

Etham,  the  Ezrahite,  sings  in  Ps.  89 :  20-26 : 

“I  have  found  David  My  servant; 

With  My  Holy  oil  have  I  anointed  him: 
With  whom  My  hand  shall  be  established; 
Mine  arm  also  shall  strengthen  him. 

The  enemy  shall  not  exact  from  him. 


GOD  IS  FAITHFUL 


239 


Nor  the  son  of  wickedness  afflict  him. 

And  I  will  beat  down  his  adversaries  before 
him, 

And  smite  them  that  hate  him. 

But  My  faithfulness  and  My  lovingkindness 
shall  be  with  him; 

And  in  My  name  shall  his  horn  be  exalted. 

I  will  set  his  hand  also  on  the  sea, 

And  his  right  hand  on  the  rivers. 

He  shall  cry  unto  Me,  Thou  art  my  Father, 

My  God,  and  the  Rock  of  my  salvation.” 

This  whole  89th  Psalm  that  has  fifty-two  stanzas  in 
all  might  well  be  called  the  "‘Faithfulness  Psalm.”  It 
begins  with  these  words : 

“I  will  sing  of  the  lovingkindness  of  Jehovah 
forever : 

With  my  mouth  will  I  make  known  Thy 
faithfulness  to  all  generations.''  (v.  i), 
and  it  closes  with  the  words : 

“Amen,  and  Amen” 

and  “Amen”  is  the  adverb  derived  from  the  verb  from 
which  the  adjective  “faithful”  and  the  noun  “faithful¬ 
ness”  are  derived.  The  adverb  is  “Amen”  and  the 
verb  is  “Aman.” 

3.  In  the  third  place,  God's  Faithfulness  is  Mani¬ 
fested  in  His  standing  by  His  people  and  saving  them, 
even  when  they  are  unfaithful  to  Him.  This  also 
we  are  told  in  both  the  Old  Testament  and  the  New 
Testament.  W’e  read  in  Jeremiah’s  song  of  heart¬ 
breaking  sympathy  for  Israel  in  the  dire  calamities  that 
overtook  them  in  his  day  (which  calamities  he  had 
foretold  but  did  not  glory  in  the  fact  that  his  pre- 


240 


THE  GOD  OF  THE  BIBLE 


dictions  had  been  fulfilled;  indeed  he  was  heart-broken 
over  the  fact).  I  say  we  read  in  the  midst  of  this 
most  pathetic  dirge  that  was  ever  written  these  words, 
Lam.  3  :  22,  23  : 

*Tt  is  of  Jehovah's  lovingkindnesses  that  we 
are  not  consumed,  because  His  compassions  fail 
not. 

They  are  new  every  morning;  great  is  Thy 
faithfulness  T 

Again  he  cries  in  his  prophecy,  Jer.  51:5: 

‘‘For  Israel  is  not  forsaken,  nor  Judah  of 
his  God,  of  Jehovah  of  Hosts;  though  their 
land  is  fidl  of  guilt  against  the  Holy  One  of 
Israel/^ 

Faithless  indeed  had  Israel  been,  hut  God  had  con¬ 
tinued  faithful.  And  Israel  as  a  nation  is  faithless  to 
this  very  day,  but  God  still  continues  faithful,  and  will 
even  yet  make  Israel  glorious. 

Samuel  proclaimed  the  same  truth  away  back  in  his 
day  when  the  people,  and  their  priests,  and  their 
prophets  had  been  grossly  wicked  and  faithless  to  God. 
This  we  see  in  I  Sam.  12 :  20-22 : 

“And  Samuel  said  unto  the  people.  Fear  not : 
ye  have  indeed  done  all  this  evil;  yet  turn  not 
aside  from  following  Jehovah,  but  serve  Je¬ 
hovah  with  all  your  heart,  and  turn  ye  not 
aside:  for  then  would  ye  go  after  vain  things, 
which  cannot  profit  nor  deliver;  for  they  are 
vain.  For  Jehovah  will  not  forsake  His  people 
for  His  great  name's  sake :  because  it  hath 
pleased  Jehovah  to  make  you  a  people  unto 
Himself." 


GOD  IS  FAITHFUL 


241 


And  Paul  declares  the  same  truth  to  us  who  are 
believers  in  Jesus  Christ,  and  still  are  often  a  faithless 
company.  He  says  in  H  Tim.  2:13: 

we  are  faithless,  yet  He  abideth  faithful; 
for  He  cannot  deny  Himself.” 

Oh,  I  do  rejoice  that  my  security,  here  and  hereafter, 
is  not  dependent  upon  my  faithfulness,  but  upon  His. 

4.  In  the  fourth  place,  God's  Faithfulness  is  Mani¬ 
fested  in  His  not  suffering  His  children  to  he  tempted 
above  that  which  they  are  able  to  stand,  but  zvith,  the 
temptation  making  also  a  way  of  escape  that  they  may 
he  able  to  bear  it.  This  we  read  in  those  very  familiar 
words  in  I  Cor.  10:  13: 

“There  hath  no  temptation  taken  you  but 
such  as  man  can  bear :  but  God  is  faithfid.  Who 
zvill  not  suffer  you  to  be  tempted  above  that 
ye  are  able;  but  will  with  the  temptation  make 
also  the  way  of  escape,  that  ye  may  be  able 
to  endure  it.” 

What  a  stay  these  words  have  been  to  a  multitude 
of  Christians  who  felt  deeply  their  own  weakness,  but 
stayed  themselves  on  His  Faithfulness. 

5.  In  the  fifth  place,  The  Faithfulness  of  God  is 
Manifested  in  His  confirming  and  establishing  those 
Whom  He  has  called,  guarding  them  from  the  evil 
one,  so  that  not  one  of  them  shall  ever  perish,  and 
sanctifying  them  wholly,  and  preserving  them  entire — 
spirit,  and  soul,  and  body — without  blame  at  the  com¬ 
ing  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  This  precious  truth  we 
find  set  forth  very  clearly  in  three  different  passages 
from  Paul’s  epistles,  first,  H  Thess.  3:3: 


242  THE  GOD  OF  THE  BIBLE 

‘‘But  the  Lord  is  faithful,  Who  shall  estab¬ 
lish  you,  and  guard  you  from  the  evil  one/* 
Second,  I  Cor.  i :  8,  9 : 

“Who  shall  also  confirm  you  unto  the  end, 
that  ye  be  unreprovable  in  the  day  of  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ.  God  is  faithful,  through  Whom 
ye  were  called  into  the  fellowship  of  His  Son 
Jesus  Christ  our  Lord.” 

Third,  and  best  of  all,  I  Thess.  5 :  23,  24 : 

“And  the  God  of  peace  Himself  sanctify  you 
wholly ;  and  may  your  spirit  and  soul  and  body 
be  preserved  entire,  without  blame  at  the  com¬ 
ing  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  Faithful  is  He 
that  calleth  you,  Who  will  also  do  it.** 

The  Faithfulness  of  God  makes  it  certain  that  at 
the  return  of  our  Lord  Jesus  to  this  earth  we  shall 
be  sanctified  wholly,  and  that  our  “spirit  and  soul 
and  body  shall  be  preserved  entire  without  blame.” 

Is  it  any  wonder  then  that  on  the  one  hand  “we 
rejoice  with  joy  unspeakable  and  full  of  glory”  in  His 
Faithfulness,  and  on  the  other  hand,  eagerly  cry, 
“Amen,  Come,  Lord  Jesus”?  This  last  prayer  in  the 
Bible  begins  with  the  word  '*Amen**  from  which  He¬ 
brew  root  the  Hebrew  words  translated  “faithful”  and 
“faithfulness”  are  derived.  Our  Lord  Jesus  Himself 
said  in  Jno.  10:28,  29: 

“And  I  give  unto  them  eternal  life;  and  they 
shall  never  perish,  and  no  one  shall  snatch  them 
out  of  My  hand.  My  Father,  Who  hath  given 
them  unto  Me,  is  greater  than  all:  and  no  one 
is  able  to  snatch  them  out  of  the  Father* s  hand.** 
All  our  confidence  as  believers  in  Jesus  Christ  in 


GOD  IS  FAITHFUL 


243 

regard  to  the  future,  both  for  this  present  age  and  for 
the  age  which  is  to  come,  is  not  in  our  faithfulness 
but  in  His.  Dr.  A.  T.  Pierson  was  once  asked  if  he 
believed  in  the  Perseverance  of  the  Saints.  He  re¬ 
plied,  ^‘No,  I  don’t;  but  I  do  believe  in  the  Perseverance 
of  the  Saviour.” 

6.  In  the  sixth  place,  God's  Faithfulness  is  Mani¬ 
fested  in  His  chastening  His  children  when  they  go 
astray.  This  we  read  in  Ps.  119:75: 

^T  know,  O  Jehovah,  that  Thy  judgments 
are  righteous, 

And  that  in  Faithfulness  Thou  hast  afflicted 
me.” 

If  God  only  showered  blessings  upon  us  and  never 
let  suffering,  yes,  keen  suffering  and  anguish  come 
into  our  lives.  He  would  not  be  a  faithful  God,  a  God 
to  be  absolutely  depended  upon  in  every  contingency; 
for  we  often  need  sorrow  far  more  than  we  need 
joy,  and  our  faithful  God  sends  it,  just  as  we  read 
in  Heb.  12:6: 

*Tor  whom  the  Lord  loveth  he  chasteneth. 

And  scourgeth  every  son  whom  He  receiv- 
eth.” 

7.  In  the  seventh  place,  God's  Faithfidness  is  Man¬ 
ifested  in  His  forgiving  His  children  when  they  con¬ 
fess  their  sins.  John  tells  us  this  in  I  Jno.  1:9: 

*Tf  we  confess  our  sins.  He  is  faithful  and 
righteous  to  forgive  us  our  sins,  and  to  cleanse 
us  from  all  unrighteousness.” 

Our  confidence  that  God  will  forgive  our  sins  when 
confessed  rests  upon  two  known  facts  about  God, 
namely,  that  God  is  Righteous,  and  that  God  is  Faith- 


244 


THE  GOD  OF  THE  BIBLE 


ful.  God^s  Righteousness  pledges  Him  to  forgive  us 
our  sins  because  He,  Himself,  has  provided  an  atone¬ 
ment  for  them  that  perfectly  satisfies  the  demands  of 
His  own  Righteousness  and  Holiness,  and  God  is 
Righteous  and  therefore  will  not  require  payment 
twice.  God’s  Faithfulness  makes  it  absolutely  certain 
that  He  will  forgive  the  believers’  sins  when  they  are 
confessed;  for  He  has  promised  to  do  it,  and  His 
Faithfulness  makes  it  absolutely  certain  He  will  keep 
His  Word.  If  you  are  a  believer  in  Jesus  Christ,  for 
you  to  doubt  that  your  sin  is  forgiven  when  you  have 
confessed  it  is  to  question  both  the  Righteousness  and 
Faithfulness  of  God,  as  well  as  to  question  His  verac¬ 
ity.  Therefore,  to  question  that  your  sins  are  for¬ 
given  is  not  a  becoming  humility  but  daring  presump¬ 
tion. 

8.  In  the  eighth  place,  God^s  Faithfulness  is  Mani- 
fested  in  His  answering  the  prayers  of  His  children. 
This,  we  are  taught  in  Ps.  143:  i,  2: 

‘‘Hear  my  prayer,  O  Jehovah; 

Give  ear  to  my  supplications : 

In  Thy  faithfidness  answer  me,  and  in  Thy 
righteousness. 

And  enter  not  into  judgment  with  Thy  serv¬ 
ant  ; 

For  in  thy  sight  no  man  living  is  righteous.” 

Our  last  three  chapters  have  been  on  the  Righteous¬ 
ness,  the  Lovingkindness  (or  Mercy)  and  the  Faith¬ 
fulness  of  God.  These  three  attributes  of  God  run 
along  very  nearly  parallel  lines,  and  they  are  all 
pledged  to  the  deliverance,  the  defense,  and  the  com¬ 
plete  and  eternal  salvation  of  God’s  people. 


GOD  IS  FAITHFUL 


245 


Such  IS  the  God  of  the  Bible,  what  a  wonderful 
God!  We  can  well  exclaim  with  Micah  of  old, 
“Who  is  a  God  like  unto  Thee?”  (Mic.  7:18). 
And  the  answer  is.  No  other  God  is  like  unto  the  God 
of  the  Bible ^  the  God  of  the  Old  Testament  and  the 
New  Testament,  the  God  of  Abraham,  of  Isaac  and 
of  Jacob,  Who  is  the  same  as  the  God  of  Paul,  and 
Peter,  and  John  and  James,  and  of  our  Lord  and 
Saviour  Jesus  Christ.  One  thing  must  have  impressed 
you  as  in  these  twelve  chapters  we  have  studied  the 
God  of  the  Bible,  and  that  is,  the  marvelous  unity  of 
the  Book  with  its  forty  or  more  human  authors,  but 
all  God-controlled,  presenting  through  more  than  fif¬ 
teen  hundred  years  and  under  the  most  diverse  and 
divergent  circumstances,  the  same  God  in  every  respect, 
and  thus  conclusively  proving  that  it  was  one  Supreme 
Mind,  and  no  less  a  mind  than  the  mind  of  the  One 
Infinite,  Eternal,  and  Omniscient  God  Who  spoke 
through  them  all. 

Yes,  “Who  is  a  God  like  unto  Him?”  Surely  not 
the  God  of  ancient  philosophers,  poets  and  sages,  and 
just  as  surely  not  the  God  of  modern  philosophers, 
poets  and  dreamers,  except  in  so  far  as  they  have  bor¬ 
rowed  their  conception  of  God  from  this  centuries- 
old  Book,  some  parts  thirty-four  centuries  old,  and 
yet  ever  presenting  the  same  God.  The  god  of  “Chris¬ 
tian  Science”  is  not  like  unto  Him.  The  god  of  The¬ 
osophy  is  not  like  unto  Him.  The  God  of  “New 
Thought”  is  not  like  unto  Him.  The  god  of  Spiritual¬ 
ism  is  not  like  unto  Him.  The  God  of  Modern  Uni- 
tarianism  is  not  like  unto  Him.  The  God  of  the  New 
Theology  is  not  like  unto  Plim.  The  god  of  Modern 


246  THE  GOD  OF  THE  BIBLE 

Philosophy  is  not  like  unto  Him.  The  god  of  *‘Mod- 
ernism”  in  all  its  forms  is  not  like  unto  Him.  Let 
us  then  cast  to  the  bats  and  the  owls  these  man-made 
gods,  and  believe  in  and  obey  and  surrender  our  lives 
to,  and  worship  and  adore  the  God  of  the  Bible;  and 
let  us  continue  to  study  to  know  Him  ever  more  and 
more  fully,  for  “This  is  the  life  eternal,  that  we 
should  know  Thee,  the  Only  true  God,  and  Him 
Whom  Thou  didst  send,  even  Jesus  Christ.’’ 


THE  END 


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